Strength
by purplestarz2006
Summary: Wickedbookversemusicalverse combo What does it mean to be strong? When Elphaba gets a tragic letter, she, as well as others at Shiz, learn to answer that question.
1. Default Chapter

Strength 

A.N. Ok, first a plea for mercy. This is my first Wicked fic. I've read the book, but because my reading skills are more speed than substance, I think I missed a few details. I also haven't seen the musical yet, but I'm going to soon (in 39 days,to be exact) and I worship the CD. Also this is not based entirely in either universe, though after re-reading this chapter I would have to say it's leaning toward the musical side. The point? If you see details that seem slightly out of place, please bear with me. Of course, if I make any grave errors feel free to review and tell me, just do so nicely and please DON'T give me any spoilers about the musical!

Glinda skipped happily down the hallway, returning from an outing with Boq, Fiyero, and the rest of their little group. It was quite late, so she wasn't surprised to see no light coming out from under her doorway. Elphaba was probably already asleep. As Glinda fished out her key, she wondered why Elphaba had declined the invitation to come along with them. She had seemed to be doing so much better with social things.

As Glinda entered the room, an unfamiliar sound caught her attention. Well, it wasn't entirely unfamiliar. It was just a strange sound to hear coming from Elphaba. There was a soft whimpering noise coming from her bed. Glinda had produced that noise enough herself to know what it meant.

Elphaba, her strong, witty, sarcastic, and slightly antisocial roommate, was crying.

At first, Glinda was at a loss about what to do. She had never seen Elphie display any emotion before, other than annoyance. Slowly, she stepped into the room and turned on a light so she could see the situation better.

Elphie was lying on top of her blankets, slightly curled up. She had her face to the wall, so she did not notice Glinda standing there. She also had something in her hands, but Glinda couldn't see what it was.

Not wanting to startle her friend, Glinda carefully approached the bed and put a hand on Elphie's shoulder. Elphie's body tensed a bit as she turned to see who had touched her, but she relaxed when she saw Glinda.

"I thought you were out with Fiyero and everyone." Elphie said through her tears.

Glinda nodded. "I just got home. What's wrong? Why are you crying?

"I'm not crying. I just

"Elphie, you are too crying. I can tell. Your face is all burned up from the tears." Glinda said as she sat down on the bed next to her. She shifted her friend's position so that Elphie's head rested against her leg.

It was Elphaba's next action that let Glinda know that something was seriously wrong. Elphaba did nothing. She allowed Glinda to comfort her, which was something that, under normal circumstances, would never happen. Glinda reached over to Elphaba's nightstand and grabbed a box of tissues, with which she began drying off her friend's face. The skin was raised and irritated where the tears had fallen, and Glinda was careful not to irritate it any more.

"Elphie, what's wrong? Are you sick? Did you get hurt?" Glinda asked. Elphie's lack of protest in this whole situation was beginning to make Glinda wonder if there was something physically wrong with her.

Without lifting it off of Glinda's lap, Elphie shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it" she choked out. The tears were coming into her eyes again.

Glinda slowly started to stroke Elphie's hair. "It's alright, Elphie. You can tell me. Maybe I can help make it better" she said, even though she wasn't sure that would be the case. Sure, she could comfort someone over a problem with their shoes or their makeup, and she could give great romance advice, but somehow she doubted that any of these were the reason Elphie was such a wreck.

This didn't seem to be a concern of Elphie's, though. She motioned to a piece of paper on the edge of the bed. Hesitatingly, Glinda picked it up and read it.

_To: Miss Elphaba Thropp and Miss Nessarose Thropp_

_ Crage Hall_

_ Shiz University_

_ It is my sad duty to inform you that your mother, Melena, passed away on November 11th. As you may expect, your father is quite distraught by this, so much so that he was not able to write this letter. The memorial service will be on November 15th at 10:00 am. This should allow you ample time to travel from Shiz to Nest Hardings. A letter has also been sent to the head excusing both of your absences from class._

Glinda put the letter down and looked back at Elphaba, who was still crying on her lap. "Elphie, I'mÉI'm so sorry." She was getting emotional herself. Glinda resumed stroking Elphaba's hair. She pulled her up so that her head was now resting on her chest and wrapped her arms around her. As she did so, she noticed what Elphie had been holding earlier. Still clasped in her green hands was a small glass bottle that Glinda had seen on Elphaba's nightstand before. She took Elphaba's hands in her own and asked, "What's this?

"It's something I keep to remind me of my mother. When I get upset, holding that usually calms me down. I guess it didn't work tonight. I'm sorry I've been keeping you up all night.

"It's alright, Elphie. Now, try to get some sleep, ok?" As Glinda walked back across the room, she heard Elphaba call out her name. "Yes?

"Um, could you, well, stay over here? I'm still a little shaky and

"Sure, if it helps you feel better. You really scared me tonight. Before tonight, I didn't know crying was something you could do." Glinda said as she went back over to Elphaba's bed. Elphaba allowed her head to once again fall on Glinda's lap as she drifted off to sleep.

Once Glinda was sure Elphaba was asleep, she moved Elphaba's head to her pillow and pulled a blanket around her. As she went to get into her own bed, she looked back over at Elphaba. She wished there was something more she could do for her.

A.N. Ok, so how is it so far? Please review.


	2. Off to Nest Hardings

Strength 

A.N. Whoops! Forgot to put a disclaimer on the first chapter. Oh, well, here it is now.

I don't own these characters.

Also, thanks to asdf and Aerohead for reviewing and pointing out some detail errors. I realized while I was re-reading the first chapter about the whole Elphie/Elphaba thing. I tried to make all of the ones outside of dialogue "Elphaba" but I guess I missed a bunch at the beginning. Also, I knew that Melena died in the book, but I wasn't sure if she died in the musical too. Thanks for not completely shooting me down.

The next morning, Glinda woke up before Elphaba. As she got dressed, she debated whether to go find Fiyero and tell him what was going on. She was sure he could help Elphaba, but she didn't want to leave her alone. Just then, there was a knock at the door. Glinda answered it to find Fiyero and Boq standing in the hallway. Although she was less than thrilled to see Boq, she was relieved that Fiyero had come to them.

"Hi. What are you doing here? How did you get in?" she asked.

Fiyero laughed. "You girls have to get some better security here. Sneaking in here is a snap. Anyway, we came to see Elphie. We heard about her mother and

Confused, Glinda interjected with "How did you know?

"Well, Nessa was really upset last night and she showed us this letter saying thatÉ" Boq began.

"Yes, yes. I know. Isn't it terrible?" Glinda interrupted. She looked over to see Elphaba stirring in her bed. "Fiyero, you stay here and talk to her. Boq and I will go down to the dining hall and bring up some breakfast," she said. Boq, happy to go anywhere with Glinda, followed her down the hallway as Fiyero made his way to Elphaba's side. As he sat down, Elphaba opened her eyes.

She blinked a couple of times, adjusting to the morning light. As her eyes began to focus, she realized who was in the room with her.

"FiÉFiyero? How did youÉand where's

"Me and Boq snuck in to see how you were doing. But Glinda went down to get us breakfast and you know Boq. Wherever Glinda goes, Boq follows.

Elphaba nodded, and then the memory of the day before hit her. She started to feel tears welling up in her eyes again, quickly turning away from Fiyero. She didn't want him to see her like this. It was bad enough that Glinda had seen her like that, but Glinda was her roommate. It would have been impossible to keep this from her. Fiyero was different. She couldn't let him see her weak. She had to be strong. She blinked several times to fight the tears back. Her face still burned from the night before. "Thanks for coming, but I'm fine. Really, I am" she said.

Fiyero, however, wasn't buying it. He sat down where Glinda had been sitting the night before and began to gently rub her shoulders and back. "It's ok, Elphie. You're allowed to cry in front of me and in front of anyone else for that matter. A few tears never hurt anyoneÉ" Fiyero's voice trailed off as he remembered one important piece of information about Elphaba. He looked at her face and saw the burns from the previous night. Granted, they weren't third degree burns that would cause permanent damage. But he was guessing that the tears were hurting Elphaba's face. He quickly grabbed some tissues off of the nightstand and held them directly under Elphaba's eyes, making sure to cover any area where a tear might meet the skin. Some tears overflowed from her eyes, but were absorbed into the tissues rather than touching her face, preventing any pain.

Fiyero continued to massage her shoulders and back for a few more minutes before asking, "So when are you leaving for Nest Hardings?

Elphaba thought for a moment. She hadn't even given the memorial service any thought. "I guess today. I've only got two days for traveling, and it will be tight as it is. I just have to get Nessa ready and then we can go.

"Well, I guess I'll let you get ready, then. I've been up here too long anyway. Have a safe trip, Fabala.

Elphaba considered objecting to his use of her childhood pet name, but she decided against it. She was not in the mood to get into pointless arguments. Instead, she smiled as best she could, to prove to him that she was all right.

Three hours later, after getting herself and Nessa ready and packed, Elphaba waited with Nessa by the entrance to the Shiz campus for the cab driver. Suddenly, Glinda and Fiyero came out, each holding a suitcase.

"What's going on? Why do you guys have bags?" Elphaba asked, although part of her knew the answer.

"Well, we were talking and

"We're coming with you." Glinda interrupted Fiyero's explanation. Elphaba looked at them and said,

"Look, that's very sweet, but you really don't have to come.

"Oh, yes we do! After seeing Nessa last night and you this morning, I don't think either of you are in good enough condition to be traveling alone. Therefore, I'm coming along to protect you from whatever may happen on the road from here to Nest Hardings.

"And what is your reason" Elphaba asked, looking at Glinda.

"Well, I just want to make sure you're ok.

"Yeah, right. She just doesn't want to be alone with Boq for a week." Nessa said. It was the first time she had spoken that day.

Elphaba sighed. "Alright, you guys can come. Just don't expect me to be my usual peppy self" she said sarcastically. Glinda smiled as they got into the cab.

"Now that's the Elphaba we all know and love.

As the cab drove on to Nest Hardings, Glinda and Fiyero noticed that Elphaba wouldn't look at any of them. She stared out the window at the passing countryside, lost in her own world. When Glinda and Nessa both fell asleep, Fiyero decided to find out what was wrong.

"Are you alright?" he asked softly as he moved closer to her.

Elphaba nodded. "Yes. I just never thought this would happen.

Fiyero put his hand on her shoulder. "Yeah, I know. No one ever is completely ready for their parents to

"No, not even that. I knew that this was going to happen eventually. My mother was never a very healthy person, physically or mentally. I guess giving birth to one green child and one child who will never walk took a toll on her. I meant that I never expected myself to react like that.

"Elphie, it's called grief. It's an emotion most people associate with death. Why shouldn't you have reacted that way?" Fiyero hoped that his attempt at sarcasm would help; unfortunately that was not the case.

"Fiyero, I don't express emotions. Last night was the first time I've cried in, well, since I can remember." Elphaba looked at Fiyero's expression and continued, sensing he did not believe her. "Well, think about it. When I was a baby, one of the first things I learned was that water, and therefore crying, meant pain. So I guess as I grew up I decided that not expressing sadness was better than expressing it and having permanent burns on my face. I mean, I was ugly enough with the green skin, but burns

"You are not ugly, Elphie, and you never were. Anyway, so tears burn you. That doesn't mean that you're always going to be able to keep every emotion inside. It's not healthy, Elphaba

Elphaba shifted her position so that she was once again looking out the window. "I just always thought I was so strong. All my life, that's all I been is the strong one. Now, I don't even know who I am anymore. I don't do this. I don't sit here and openly discuss things like this. I don't lie on my bed crying at night. I don't let people hold me until I stop. And then I get this letter and it's like all that strength just, vanished.

"It did not vanish. You're still being incredibly strong" said Fiyero.

Without turning around, Elphaba whispered "Then why do I feel so weak?" She let her head fall onto Fiyero's shoulder. No tears fell from her eyes, but slowly she drifted off to sleep.

A.N. Ok, there's chapter two! Please review!


	3. Close Quarters and Leaky Roofs

Strength 

A.N. Once again, thanks to all who reviewed so far-your advice has been greatly appreciated.

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters

When Elphaba woke up, the cab was pulling up to a small, run-down looking inn.

"Why are we stopping?" Nessa asked groggily, also just awoken from her nap.

Fiyero jumped at hearing the voice behind him. He had almost forgotten that Nessa and Glinda were there. They had not said a word through the entire trip. "The cab driver asked us where we were spending the night, and I told him to just take us to the closest inn. I guess this was the closest inn.

After the travelers had unloaded their luggage, Elphaba and Fiyero began the project that was getting Nessa out of the cab. Fiyero held Nessa while Elphaba struggled with the wheelchair. The wheelchair was slightly wider than the cab door, and neither of them seemed to remember how they had accomplished getting her into the cab in the first place.

As Elphaba and Fiyero struggled, Glinda stood looking at the inn. It was positively tiny and looked as though no one had cared to stay there for quite a while. She fought back her instinctive urge to whine about the situation; after all, she had chosen to come to support Elphaba and Nessa.

After what seemed like hours but was actually only three minutes, Elphaba and Fiyero managed to get Nessa and her wheelchair out of the cab. The cab driver, happy that his cab made it through the ordeal with no major damage, quickly sped away as Elphaba, Glinda, Nessa, and Fiyero went inside the tiny inn.

Being that they were four collage students they did not have much money with them. Even with Glinda's prestigious background, the group only had enough collective money to rent one room for the night. Granted, they could have rented two if they had spent all of their money, but Elphaba reminded everyone that there would be another overnight stay on the way back to Shiz.

At first, the four of them had no problems about sharing a room. At least, they had no problems until they saw the room. The room was barely big enough for one person, with one double bed. It wasn't exactly the most well maintained place either. The paint was peeling in several spots and there was a strange smell in the air. But what bothered them most was the one bed.

"Well, I guess it's going to be a close night." Fiyero said as he rummaged through his bag for his pajamas. The three girls took the hint and waited in the hallway for him to finish changing. With some coaxing he did the same while the girls were changing, and then they began figuring out how to fit four people into one double bed. They decided that Nessa should be somewhere in the middle, because should she fall out ("which could very well happen to someone on the end when space is this limited", Glinda had pointed out) she would not be able to get back up again. In the end they decided that Glinda should be on one end, Nessa and Elphaba in the middle, and Fiyero on the other end. Elphaba was not thrilled about being so closely confined between two people, but once the arrangements were put into effect she realized that there was something very comforting about having another person next to her as she slept. It was nice, a feeling of protection. And it was something that she needed that night.

They slept peacefully for half the night, when Elphaba woke up to a strange sensation. Well, not strange. She had felt it before. There was a strong burning on her face, and it kept intensifying. She put her hand to her face to see what was wrong, and felt the burning spread to her hand. Just then, her ears picked up the sound of her worst enemy outside the window. She sat up, realizing what was going on.

It was raining, and the roof of the inn, having not been properly tended to in years, was leaking directly onto Elphaba. Combined with the burns from her tears the night before, her face was really taking a beating this week. Her first instinct was to go put her soothing oil on the burn to stop the pain; however, she quickly realized she was trapped between Nessa and Fiyero. Not wanting to disturb anyone, she pulled the thin blanket over her face, hoping that it would keep out the water. It did for a few seconds, and then the water began to hit her again. The burning intensified, and Elphaba began to look for any way to escape the bed. She needed that oil.

She decided to try burrowing her way out on foot of the bed. She succeeded in getting out of the bed, but not without pulling the blanket completely off of Fiyero, who was getting hit by water droplets as well. In fact, everyone except Glinda seemed to be a victim of the leaky roof. "Figures. The princess doesn't get wet but the one who's allergic to water gets trapped beneath a leak." Elphaba thought to herself as she rummaged through her bag looking for her oil. She quietly opened the door to the bathroom and turned on the light. The size and severity of the burn shocked her. The water must have been hitting her face for a long time. She poured some of the oil onto her palm and was in the process of spreading it over the burn when she heard another voice at the door.

"Elphie, what are you doing? It's the middle of the night. It's not time to put lotion on right nowÉOh sweet Oz! What happened to your face?" Glinda was more shocked at the burn than Elphaba had been.

"The roof has been leaking on my face since it started raining, who knows how long ago. I'm not putting on lotion, I'm putting oil on it to stop the pain." Elphaba replied. "It figures that you would be the one to wake up when you're the only one who wasn't getting hit with water.

"I'm very sensitive to light. Anyway, are you sure you're alright? That burn looks pretty bad. Hold on, stay right there. I think I have something that may help you." Glinda said as she disappeared into the main room.

"Glinda, I highly doubt that lip gloss or eyeliner is going to help in this situation." Elphaba said in a forced whisper. She was shocked to see Glinda come back into the bathroom holding a first aid kit. "You actually thought enough to bring that?

"Well, no. Fiyero did. But there must be something in here for burns stronger than that oil. Let's see, oh, here's a cute little book! Ok, burns, burns

Elphaba couldn't help but laugh at Glinda calling the first aid guide cute. Suddenly, she heard Glinda cry out "Oh, here it is! Burns. It says here that a burn should immediately be cleaned with water (well, that's one step we won't be doing) and that a soothing ointment can be rubbed on the burn to stop pain if necessary. And look, here it is! Ok, sit down there and relax.

Elphaba balanced herself on the edge of the shower, wondering if Glinda actually knew what she was doing. Glinda had never seemed to be the doctor type. She didn't say anything, however, because the pain was intensifying by the second. Once Glinda had figured out how to open the cap on the ointment tube, she sat next to Elphaba and proceeded to apply the ointment to her face. At first, the burn hurt when it was touched, but as the ointment was applied the pain slowly disappeared.

As the two girls exited the bathroom and somehow managed to fit back into the bed, Elphaba looked over at Glinda. She had once again proven herself to be an honest, caring friend, something that until two weeks before Elphaba would have never thought possible. Even until tonight she had been skeptical.

"Maybe there is something beneath the blonde after all" she thought to herself as she drifted off to sleep.


	4. Welcome Home

Strength 

A.N. Thanks for the reviews. A word about quotes; I know that some of the quotations in my stories (not just this one) don't have the ending quotation mark. That is a formatting error that happens when I upload chapters, but one of the joys of owning a Mac is that the new version of QuickEdit doesn't seem to like my Internet Explorer very much, even though it's 5.2, so when I hit save changes it doesn't do anything. I knew someone would bring the quotes up eventually. It only seems to happen when the quotations end a line of text. While we're on the subject of my computer screwing things up, you may have noticed a capital E with an accent over it. That is also put there during uploading, replacing an ellipse. Once again, I can't fix it right now. It bugs me just as much as it bugs you, so I'll try to fix these things soon. Anyway, I digress. Back to the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters

As the carriage entered Nest Hardings, Elphaba slowly woke up. She recognized the familiar village of her childhood right away. Despite having only spent the first three or four years of her life here, she always considered this to be her home.

The carriage pulled up to a very large, albeit somewhat dilapidated house: the governor's mansion. Seeing as how Frex had been wandering around being a missionary, the house had fallen into a bit of disrepair. However, it was obvious that the house was still in pretty good condition, and Elphaba breathed a sigh of relief at knowing that the house was still standing and would remain that way for the duration of their visit.

As the cab came to a halt, Elphaba could see her father waiting by the doorway, as if he was expecting their arrival at this exact time. As she, Glinda, and Fiyero began the project of getting Nessa out of the cab, he slowly walked toward them, no doubt wondering who these two strangers were accompanying his daughters.

Of course, he was immediately drawn to Nessa. "My pet, how are you? Come, let me help you out of that cab."

Fiyero stood and watched as Frex got Nessa's wheelchair out of the cab and wheeled her up the path into the house. He looked at Elphaba, who was still getting the bags out of the cab. Frex's greeting for her, Fiyero noticed, was absent.

Fiyero and Glinda grabbed their bags and followed Elphaba to the front door. When they walked inside, they saw Frex comforting a crying Nessa.

"Father" Elphaba said, causing Frex to look up at her, albeit very briefly.

"Oh, Fabala. I'm glad you could come as well. I wasn't sure if you would elect to join your sister at the ceremony. You never were good with public events, what with your, condition. No matter, I'm glad to see that you've retained your strength for the sake of Nessarose. We cannot have both of you breaking down and crying, can we? Now, who are these people you've brought with you?"

"Father, this is Glinda, my roommate at Shiz, and Fiyero, a good friend of both mine and Nessa's. They accompanied us on the journey as an extra means of support."

"Oh, yes. I see." Frex said, rather unenthusiastically. "I suppose you and your roommate can put your bags in your old bedroom, and we will have to find a place for your friend, Fiyero, was it, to stay."

Elphaba nodded, and led both Glinda, and Fiyero who was carrying most of Glinda's bags, down the hall to her bedroom. When she opened the door, Fiyero felt his heart ache. The room consisted of two twin beds, a dresser, and little else. But what made Fiyero's heart ache was the room across the hall. Judging by the wider doorway, he guessed that room was Nessa's. With the door wide open, he could see that Nessa's room had been fully decorated held many toys and games that must have amused Nessa growing up. Even though Elphaba had never admitted it to him, Fiyero was beginning to see that Nessa had indeed been the favorite child of the family.

When Glinda had gotten all of her bags into the room, she immediately went to the bathroom to freshen up, leaving Elphaba alone with Fiyero. For a few moments, Elphaba sat on one of the beds, without looking up. Fiyero slowly moved to sit next to her.

"So why were there two beds in here?" Fiyero asked, trying to initiate some form of conversation.

"When my parents were expecting Nessa, they were afraid she would be green, like me. So they planned to have both of us share this room and save the room across the hall for their third, normal child. But when Nessa was born with white skin, they decided that she should have her own room. They didn't need to lock her away with me." Elphaba took very deep breaths as she spoke. After she finished her story, she looked up at Fiyero. "Fiyero? Go grab some tissues. I need to cry."

Fiyero looked around the room, searching for anything that he could hold under Elphaba's eyes. Unfortunately, the meager furnishings did not include many things that could be used for this purpose. "Hang on, Elphie. I'll find something" he said as he opened up his bag. He rummaged through his belongings, wishing for the first time that he had been more organized in packing. He lifted out several shirts, some pants, and pajamas. On the bottom of the bag were two towels, one smaller than the other.

Using the smaller towel, he quickly covered up all of the skin below Elphaba's eyes. She was breathing heavily, struggling to keep the tears in. Fiyero sat behind her and put his free hand on her shoulder.

"It's ok, let it out" he said softly. He rubbed Elphaba's back as she cried, making sure that none of the tears made contact with her skin.

Glinda returned from the bathroom, and with a quick sigh of "Oh, Elphie, it's alright" joined Fiyero in comforting Elphaba. As Glinda and Fiyero worked to comfort their friend, another person stood at the door.

Frex stood in the doorway silently. He didn't want them to know he was there. He could hardly believe what he was seeing. Elphaba was crying. She was expressing emotion. "Maybe I've been wrong all this time" he thought.

A.N. Sorry this has taken longer, but things have been kind of crazy and with the site being in read-only mode for two days it got delayed even more. And I promise, there is going to be a plot emerging from this. Please review.


	5. Caught in the Storm

Strength 

A.N. Hello, all. Thanks for the reviews! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are having a wonderful start to the holiday season. I've just finished setting up my Christmas tree and my "Elphaba" ornament (technically it's the witch from the Wizard of Oz, but we can pretend) is happily defying gravity at the top.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

"I cannot believe it. She was actually expressing _emotion!_ It was like she was almost, human." Frex paced up and down his bedroom as he talked to Nanny, who was seated on the bed. Through all the years she had lived with them, Nanny had become a sort of confidant to Frex.

"Frex, of course she's human. Her mother was a human, her father is a human, what else would she be? A Goat? Honestly, it always amazes me the way you speak of your own child." Nanny said.

"She is _not _my child, Nanny. She was the product of Melena's sin. For all we know her father could have actually been a Goat!" Frex sighed deeply as he continued to pace. "I told you we shouldn't have informed her of Melena's death. I thought once I got her off to Shiz I was done with her. I thought I was done raising this, this thing."

Nanny stood up off the bed and crossed the room to where Frex was. "Frex, listen to Nanny. We do not know for sure that Elphaba is not your biological child. Melena's supposed affair was never proven. And whether you provided the biological requirement or not, she is your child. She grew up in your house, under your care. Perhaps she may have acted more human if you had treated her more human. Perhaps if you hadn't made such a strong difference between the way you were with her and the way you were with Nessa…"

"Nessarose is _disabled_, Nanny. Of course I treat her differently."

"That's not what I'm talking about." Nanny continued. "Think back to before Nessa was born. You and Elphaba got along well, much better than she and Melena ever did. You had begun to accept her, and then the normal child came and Elphaba was pushed aside."

"Nanny, what exactly is the point of all of this? Do you want me to go and apologize to the little fiend?

"Not exactly. The point is, Frex, that you do not have one demon child and one normal child. You have two human children, and both of them experience the same feelings and emotions. You have to be just as supportive and understanding of Elphaba as you are of Nessa."

As Frex and Nanny continued to argue, Elphaba and Fiyero sat outside on the front porch. Fiyero had discovered that telling stories about her mother was a healing tool for Elphaba, so he was content to sit and listen for as long as she wanted to talk. He had to admit, however, that most of Elphaba's stories were very depressing. The more he heard about Elphaba's childhood, the more he understood why she was so antisocial.

After awhile, Glinda joined them on the porch. "I'm going to go into town and go shopping. Does anyone want to go with me?" she asked.

"No, I don't think so. I'm not sure I'm up to it." Elphaba replied. But Glinda wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Oh, Elphie. It's time I teach you about the miracle that is retail therapy. Come on, it will take your mind off of everything and it will get us out of this house."

Elphaba had to admit; she didn't want to spend any more time in the house than what was absolutely necessary. So she agreed to accompany Glinda into town. She stood up and went inside to get her coat; it wasn't that cold, but it looked like it could rain any minute and she didn't want to get caught in the rain with no covering. As she walked to her bedroom, she passed the doorway to Frex's bedroom where he and Nanny were still arguing.

"Nanny, you don't understand. Ever since that girl was born, I've kept myself apart from her by saying that she simply isn't mine. I am a public figure. I cannot simply change my stance on the matter now."

"Listen to yourself, Frex! Are you really willing to put your public persona above your own child's…"

"Nanny, this is the last time I'm going to say this to you. She is _not my child._ She never was, and she never will be. We should have drowned her when we had the chance."

Elphaba stood against the walls of the hallway, unable to move. She could hardly believe what she had just heard. She wasn't her father's child? He wanted to drown her? Her legs broke into a run as she made her way out of the house.

"There you are. What took you so long?" Glinda said as Elphaba exited the front door. Elphaba gave no answer as she ran down the path and away from the house.

Fiyero stood to chase after her, but Glinda held up a hand to stop him. "I'll go. I think this is a girl talk moment," she said. Although Elphaba had never seemed to be the "girl talk" type, Fiyero agreed.

Glinda ran after Elphaba as fast as she could, but she soon discovered that high-heeled shoes were not the easiest things to run in. It was all she could do to keep up with Elphaba. Glinda was relieved when Elphaba stopped running in the middle of a meadow, but that relief quickly faded into concern when Elphaba dropped to her knees. Glinda approached cautiously; Elphaba had a reputation for being quite snappy in situations like this.

Today, however, she seemed more than willing to talk. Glinda slowly sat next to her and asked "Elphie, what's wrong?" and without any further prodding or provoking, Elphaba began to tell Glinda what was wrong.

"I was standing in the hallway, getting my coat, and I heard my father arguing with my old Nanny. He said that…that I wasn't his child."

Glinda was unsure of what to say. She couldn't imagine being told such horrible information so soon after losing a parent.

Luckily for Glinda, Elphaba broke the silence. "Glinda, why can't I be loved? Why can't I have a family that is supportive and caring?"

"Elphie, you are loved. Forget about your father. Nessarose loves you, your mother loved you…"

Glinda was interrupted by a sarcastic exhale from Elphaba. "My mother hated me as much as my father did. See that lake over there?" Elphaba pointed in the direction of the lake and, seeing Glinda nod, continued. "One of my earliest memories is me and my mother leaving for a walk when I was about two. She would always take me here, and this one morning she said "Shall we go walk by the edge of the lake today and maybe you'll drown." My father said that today too, that he wished he had drowned me when he had the chance." Elphaba let her head fall onto Glinda's shoulder.

Glinda said nothing for several minutes. She simply sat there, with Elphaba resting on her shoulder, processing the information she had just received. Although it was terrible information, Glinda realized that now had a better understanding of her friend.

Suddenly, Glinda heard a faint rumbling sound: thunder. Before she had a chance to inform Elphaba, who had not heard it, the sky opened up and the girls were being drenched in a sudden rainstorm.

"Oh my God! Elphie, we have to get you home." Glinda said as she franticly tried to pull Elphaba to her feet. It was no use, however. She was already quite weak from the water and Glinda saw that it would be quite impossible for her to walk all the way back to her house. There was no way that Glinda could carry her back; she was much smaller than Elphaba. There had to be some way to keep out the rain.

"Don't worry, Elphie. I'll find some way to get you out of the rain." Glinda opened up the bag that she had hung on her shoulder earlier that day. She saw her magic wand and got an idea. In sorcery, they had been learning how to create bubbles.

"This has to work." Glinda closed her eyes, wishing she had paid more attention in class. She uttered some magic words, and a bubble began to form around Elphaba and herself. Thankfully, the bubble kept out the rain, and Glinda was able to survey the damage the rain had done to Elphaba.

Elphaba was curled up on the bubble's floor in a fetal position. She was shaking violently. Glinda knelt down next to her and started to attempt to move her, but Elphaba flinched away. As Glinda looked at the skin on her shoulders and arms, she realized why Elphaba didn't want to be touched. The skin was burned and irritated beyond belief. She now wished that she had let Fiyero come along. Fiyero could lift Elphaba.

Not knowing what else to do, Glinda wrapped her arms around Elphaba and prepared to wait out the storm. After awhile, Elphaba stopped shaking, and Glinda realized that she had either passed out from pain or simply fallen asleep. Glinda was tired, but too scared to nod off herself. She held Elphaba tightly for about fifteen minutes, until the rain had stopped.

Once the rain stopped, Glinda woke up Elphaba. "Elphie, are you ok? Oh, Elphie, sweetie, please wake up. We have to get you home."

Elphaba's eyes opened for a second, but closed again once the pain set back in. "Glinda, it hurts so badly. I can't walk all the way back. Go get Fiyero."

"And leave you? Elphie, I'm not leaving you curled up in a field like this alone. There has to be some way to get help. HELP! Anyone, please! My friend is hurt; she needs help. Can somebody please…oh, thank Oz."?

Elphaba shifted her head in an attempt to see what Glinda was looking at. She saw a figure coming towards them. As the figure moved closer, she realized it was Fiyero, first aid kit and all. His quick walk evolved into a full run when he saw Elphaba. Once he reached her side, he grabbed the tube of burn cream from his first aid kit. However, one look at Elphaba's burns showed him that the tube of cream, with half of its contents already used on Elphaba's face at the inn, would not be sufficient. Lacking any better ideas, he lifted Elphaba off the ground and motioned to Glinda to follow him.

"Come on, we have to get her some help."

Although it seemed to be the last place that Elphaba would get help, they took her back to her father's house. Luckily, they found Frex and Nanny to be out with Nessa, a good thing seeing as Glinda was ready to punch Frex in the face for the way he had treated Elphaba.

Fiyero laid Elphaba down on one of the beds in her room and opened up Elphaba's bag. He remembered that she had said something about bringing oil for burns. Sure enough, he found a large bottle of clearish yellow oil. He dispensed some into his hand, and then handed the bottle to Glinda. "I'll take her right arm, you do her left arm." Fiyero said.

The two diligently worked on oiling Elphaba's arms, then they moved on to her neck and any other area that had been burned. Once the oil was applied, Fiyero left the room so that Glinda could get Elphaba changed for bed. As Glinda removed the wet clothes, she saw more burns and applied more oil. Eventually, her muscles relaxed somewhat, and Glinda assumed that the pain was lessening. His assumption proved to be correct, as Elphaba's eyes opened and began to dart around the room. "What happened?" she asked groggily.

"You got caught out in that rainstorm, remember? Elphie, I'm so glad you're alright. I was so scared." Glinda replied.

Elphaba started to say something, but it was masked with a yawn.

"Yes, I agree. Come on, let's get some sleep. You're going to have a hard day tomorrow."

As Glinda and Fiyero began to work out sleeping arrangements, Elphaba's mind began to wander. Tomorrow. She had completely forgotten about the memorial service. How could she appear in public, grieving the mother who had tried to drown her as a toddler and consoling the father who had been disowning her all her life? She was pulled out of her thoughts by the sudden movement of the mattress; she and Glinda were sharing the bed, apparently, with Fiyero in the second bed.

Glinda and Fiyero fell asleep before Elphaba. She subconsciously grabbed Glinda's arm as she fell asleep, dreading the day that was ahead.

A.N. Well that was exciting, wasn't it? Please review-the conflict is coming soon, I swear!


	6. A Quick Exit

Strength A.N. Thanks for the reviews 

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

The next morning, Elphaba did an excellent job of hiding her burned skin beneath her black clothing. As much as the fabric irritated the burns, it was better than explaining them to her father, as well as to Nessarose and Nanny. She wasn't quite ready to confront her father about the whole incident, and him seeing the burns would most likely lead to that.

While they were waiting for Elphaba to get dressed, Glinda and Fiyero sat in the living room.

"So, why exactly did she run off?" Fiyero asked. Glinda realized that he had not been there when Elphaba had told her what happened.

"Well, to make a long story short, she overheard her father basically disown her and wish she had been drowned."

"You know, I'm really starting to not like our friend Frex." Fiyero said. Glinda nodded.

"I know. At least we get to go home after the service today. We won't have to stay in this house anymore."

Just then Elphaba emerged from the bedroom, suitcases in hand. She handed Glinda and Fiyero their respective bags and said, "Here. Put them by the front door so we can get on the road back to Shiz as fast as possible once this thing is over." Apparently she was just as happy to leave as they were.

Nessa and Frex came out of their respective rooms. "Elphie, why are you packed already? We're not going back so soon, are we?"

Elphaba let out a sigh. While she, Glinda, and Fiyero couldn't wait to get out of Nest Hardings, Nessa was reveling in being Frex's favorite little girl again. Of course she wouldn't want to leave.

"Nessa, you can stay if you want. But we have to get back to school. We've missed too much as it is." Elphaba knew that her father would have no argument for her going back to school. "You can take a cab back up when you're ready."

Nessa looked around at Glinda, then at Fiyero, then at Elphaba and at Frex. "I'll consider it" she said.

The five of them left together to go to the memorial service. Once they arrived at the hall, however, Glinda and Fiyero were ushered inside first. They stuck out like sore thumbs among the Munchkins. Apparently, it was customary for the family of the deceased person to enter the hall last at these events. Both Glinda and Fiyero found it extremely tacky. If the family was already grieving their loved one, why make them parade into the hall when everyone else had already been seated?

The ceremony went smoothly, but both Fiyero and Glinda sensed an unspoken tension in the hall. It had come to their attention that perhaps the Thropps were the type of political family that the population appeared to love, but actually resented.

After the ceremony ended, Elphaba tried to exit the hall as quickly as she could so no one would be able to approach her and therefore delay her departure. Her efforts were unsuccessful, however, for as soon as she stepped outside she came face to face with Frex.

"So, are you still planning on returning today?" he asked. Even though he had no knowledge of Elphaba's hearing his words the day before, he sensed that she was more annoyed at him than usual.

"Yes. Is Nessa planning on returning with us?" Elphaba refused to fixate her eyes on Frex; instead she looked in the crowd for Fiyero and Glinda. They were her only escape.

"No, I don't think so. Nessa seems to be more, troubled, than you are and plans on staying at least a few more days."

"Very well. I shall inform Madame Morrible when we get back to Shiz."

"You can stay as well. I'm sure your friends can manage well enough on their way back."

Elphaba had to fight back laughter at this. Stay here without Fiyero and Glinda? There was no way that was ever going to happen. "No, I should really be getting back. Besides, I would hate to overstay my welcome here."

"Fabala, whatever do you mean?"

"I mean that I think I've stayed in your house long enough. After all, I'm not your child."

Before Frex had a chance to respond, Elphaba had disappeared into the crowd. She quickly caught up to Fiyero and Glinda, whom she had been tracking during the entire conversation with Frex. As they walked back to Frex's house to get their bags, Fiyero sensed that there was something wrong.

"I saw you talking to your father. Did you tell him about the other day?"

Elphaba nodded. "Yes. But I ran away before he could say anything. I'm done with him."

"Oh, Elphie. Just talk to him. It's never good to leave a situation like this without resolving everything." Glinda said. Elphaba couldn't help but smile at Glinda's idealistic view of the world.

"Glinda, there is no possible way that this can be resolved; at least, there's no way it can be resolved right now." As much as Elphaba hated to admit it, part of her agreed with Glinda's logic. She didn't want to leave her father on these terms. She didn't want to let go of the hope that perhaps he had only said what he did in the heat of the moment; perhaps he never truly meant it. But even this possibility was enough to convince Elphaba to talk to her father. The fear of what he said being the truth was much stronger.

Fear. That was another feeling that Elphaba hated to admit was inside of her. Over the past few days she had discovered an entirely new side to her personality. Fear. Weakness. Grief. All were emotions that Elphaba had not known herself to possess.

When the three of them arrived at Frex's house, Elphaba brought the bags outside as quickly as she could and hailed the first cab she could. She told the cab driver that they were traveling to Shiz, and agreed to be dropped off at the inn come nightfall. Without Nessa, the process of loading the cab was much shorter; all the better for Elphaba, who didn't want to remain in Nest Hardings any longer than she had to. As the cab drove away, she took one final glance back. She felt tears come to her eyes, but fought them back. For once, even if it was the only time that week, she was going to be strong.


	7. Under the Tree

Strength A.N. Thanks for the reviews. Yes, this does appear to be going in a Fiyeraba direction, doesn't it? Disclaimer: I don't own these characters 

Most of the ride to the inn was spent in a tense silence. Elphaba was afraid to speak, as speaking might have caused the emotions she was struggling to keep inside to escape. Glinda and Fiyero sensed this and did not try to initiate any conversation with her, or with each other for that matter. What could they talk about after a week like this one had been?

They arrived at the inn around nightfall. For whatever reason, possibly due to them departing Nest Hardings at a different time of the day than at which they had left Shiz, it was not the same inn they had occupied two nights earlier. Elphaba was thankful for that; hopefully the roof at this inn wouldn't leak. All three travelers were pleased to find that this inn, unlike the previous one, had two beds in each room. Their stay at the inn was rather uneventful, as was the next day's traveling. Throughout the entire journey, no one spoke more than two or three sentences at a time. Fiyero noticed, however, that something strange was beginning to happen. He couldn't take his eyes off of Elphaba. There was just something about her staring out the cab window, oblivious to everything around her, that he found so, well, beautiful. He was now glad that he had chosen to come on this journey with her. He had learned more about Elphaba in the past three days than in the entire time he had spent with her at Shiz.

They arrived back at Shiz in the early afternoon the next day. Once luggage had been unloaded, Glinda and Elphaba headed to Madame Morrible's office to announce their return, as well as Nessa's prolonged absence. There they were treated to not one but two lectures, one directed at each girl. As Glinda pretended to listen it occurred to her that Madame Morrible had most likely written and memorized all of her lectures many years ago, for each lecture seemed to be more of a memorized speech than an on the spot talking-to. The title of Glinda's most likely was "The Responsibilities of Students" and was mostly, from what Glinda could gather, about how irresponsible it was to leave with Elphaba when she was not excused and when they had no idea when they would be returning. Elphaba's lecture seemed to be titled "The Responsibilities of Family", and seemed to be about how Elphaba shouldn't have left without Nessarose. As the lectures wore on, Glinda became more and more angry at Madame Morrible, who showed no signs of sympathy to Elphaba and Nessa's family situation. The way she was talking, it was as if the girls had gone on vacation!

As Elphaba and Glinda endured the lectures, Fiyero sat in his room in Ozma Towers, staring out the window. He could see Crage Hall in the distance, and wondered if Elphaba was back in her room yet. He wondered if she was all right. He wondered if she was crying, and if Glinda knew to hold the tissues under her eyes. He had never been this concerned for anyone before. Granted, he had felt sympathy and worry for people in this kind of situation, but never to this degree; never to the point where the person was all he could think about. He tried to focus on other things. He tried to start on the pile of make-up work he had for his classes. He tried to read. He tried to study. But his mind kept wandering back to Elphaba.

"It's too soon to go over there now." Fiyero thought to himself as he attempted to work on his life sciences assignment. He had just seen her an hour earlier. Certainly, she would be tired and not in the mood to socialize. "Unless I wasn't there to socialize!" Fiyero came upon a brilliant idea. He grabbed his life sciences book and ran down the stairs and out of Ozma Towers towards Crage Hall.

He knocked on the door softly, and was surprised to see Elphaba open it rather than Glinda. "Hi Elphie. I was just wondering…"

"Shhh." Elphaba shushed Fiyero and pointed to Glinda, who was asleep on her bed. She moved into the hallway, shutting the door behind her. "You're going to get in big trouble if you get caught up here."

"I know. I was just wondering if, well, if…"

"If I was alright?" Elphaba seemed to expect the question.

"No…Well, yes, but I was also wondering if you would like to come outside with me for a little while. We both have some catching up to do for life sciences and with Glinda asleep…"

Elphaba decided to stop his rambling there. "Ok, let's go. Just let me grab my book."

Fiyero was surprised at how quickly Elphaba had agreed to come. Perhaps she didn't want to spend all afternoon essentially by herself. Perhaps she really wanted to catch up with her work. Either way, five minutes later she was with Fiyero under a tree, about midway between their two buildings. Both had their books open to create the illusion of studying, but neither one was actually doing so. They stared up at the sky, an unusually bright shade of blue that day. Fiyero glanced over at Elphaba. This was it. This was his chance.

"Elphie, can I talk to you about something?" he asked.

"Sure, Fiyero. What's up?"

"Well, it's just…over the past few day's I've…well, I've…" It was harder than Fiyero had imagined to say "I've fallen in love with you."

"Fiyero, whatever you have to say, just say it."

"Well, Elphie, since we left here for Nest Hardings, I can't get you out of my head. I…I love you, Elphie."

Elphaba stared blankly at him for a moment. Those were three words that she never expected to hear directed at her. Although, she had to admit, she had been having similar feelings for Fiyero. After a moment she let out a quiet, breathy "What?"

"I love you, Elphie. I know it sounds crazy, but…" Fiyero continued rambling, but it was drowned out by the voices in Elphie's head. Part of her wanted to believe him and that part had the same feelings about him, but another part of her told her that he was only saying this in sympathy, as Boq had done with Nessarose at the Ozdust, and that her feelings were nothing more than products of her excessive emotions over the past week. She thought back on the past few days. Fiyero had been with her through the toughest time in her life. He had seen her at her weakest. He wouldn't hurt her now, right?

Elphaba decided to trust her instincts. She pulled Fiyero, who was still rambling, closer to her and gently kissed him. After she pulled away, she whispered, "I love you too."

A.N. Aww, isn't that a nice way to end the chapter? As for how long this is going to go, I'm not quite sure of that yet. I promise to have the next chapter up as soon as I can. Please review!


	8. Fighting Jealousy

Strength 

A.N. Thanks for the reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

Fiyero sat in shock, gently holding Elphaba by her shoulders. This was not the reaction he had been expecting. It was wonderful, yes, but it wasn't what he was expecting. He had been prepared to argue, to fight, even to be rejected. He was not prepared for Elphaba to so quickly accept the idea of being in love. What was he supposed to do now?

He looked across at Elphaba and stared into her eyes. There was a new feeling to them, something that he had not seen before. In fact, there was an openness and venerability throughout her entire face that Fiyero had not seen. Well, he had seen it before, but not to this degree. He pulled her close to kiss her again. He moved her hands down onto her arms, and she flinched away.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Fiyero said in a panic. This was not a situation where one wants the other to flinch away.

"Nothing…it's just my arms are still burned from the rain the other night and…"

"Oh, right. The burns. Sorry, Elphie. I forgot about them."

Elphaba nodded, and focused her eyes downward on the grass. She blinked her eyes quickly a few times, and for a moment Fiyero thought that she was going to cry again. He reached out and touched her shoulder. "It's ok, Elphie" he said, not exactly sure what he was comforting her about.

Then Elphaba did something that surprised both of them. She looked up from the grass, and she smiled. And it wasn't the fake smile she had been putting on to keep people from worrying about her either. This one was a real, genuine smile. And it was the most beautiful thing Fiyero had ever seen.

As the two continued their meeting under the tree, someone else watched them from a far off window. Even from a distance, Glinda could tell it was Elphaba who had been kissing Fiyero. How many others at Shiz had green skin?

"How could he? How could _she_?" Glinda stood fuming at the window for several minutes, watching her friend and the object of what was apparently their mutual affection. She never considered Elphaba to be the type to even _have _a boyfriend, let alone steal one. This just could not be. She had to stop this before it went to far. "If I go now, maybe I can get Fiyero back." Glinda said to herself as she headed out the door.

If she had been hoping to catch them by the tree, she was too late. In her rage, she had failed to notice that Elphaba and Fiyero had left their meeting spot. Instead, she ran into them in the hallway. Elphaba could tell by the look in Glinda's eyes that she had seen them, and she kept her own eyes to the ground. She suddenly felt very ashamed of what she had just done.

Fiyero understood the look as well. He looked at Elphaba and quickly said "I'll see you tomorrow in life sciences then" before quickly exiting the building. Glinda let him go; she could yell at him later. Elphaba brushed past Glinda and entered their room.

Glinda entered shortly after. "Elphie, how could you do this to me? You knew how I felt about Fiyero!"

"Look, Glinda, I don't know what happened! We were just sitting there under the tree and all of a sudden he said…"

"He said?" Glinda was anxious to hear any words that Fiyero could have said that would have justified Elphaba's actions.

Elphaba paused a moment, and said "He said that he loved me."

"He said what?" Glinda was in shock. She hadn't even heard those words from Fiyero.

"I know. Who would have thought, someone actually loving me?"

"Oh, Elphie. Let's not go there again, shall we? I told you before, plenty of people love you. Nessa loves you, Fiyero apparently loves you, I love you…as a friend." Glinda was quick to cover up what she had just said. She didn't want Elphaba to get the wrong idea. Elphaba giggled a little at this. "The point is, Elphie, you are a sweet, lovable person." Glinda sighed at what she had to admit. "And Fiyero is lucky to have you."

"You're not mad?" Elphaba was amazed at how quickly Glinda could change her emotions.

"No, if you got him to say the "l" word you must really be the one he wants. I know you didn't do anything wrong. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'd better talk to Fiyero so he knows I'm not going to kill him. It'd be a shame if the new love of your life had to go into some kind of protection program from me."

Elphaba giggled again as Glinda left the room. She flopped back onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling. A smile had once again come over her face. It was a strange feeling for her, but she liked it. "Maybe this happy thing is alright after all" she thought.

Glinda entered the courtyard, and saw Fiyero sitting on a wall with his back to her. She slowly snuck up behind him and positioned herself next to him on the wall.

"Glinda, listen…about me and Elphie…" Fiyero immediately started to explain himself.

"Fiyero, I don't mind. You love her, not me. But I need you to promise me something."

Fiyero's mouth hung open a minute at the idea of Glinda accepting his love for Elphaba. That was such a, well, un-Glinda thing to do. He nodded his head in anticipation of what Glinda's demand would be.

"Don't hurt my Elphie, ok?"

Fiyero smiled and nodded. "Now you go back up there and see your girlfriend." Glinda said. As he walked away, Glinda watched him for a moment. She wondered how she was doing this. The boy she thought she would marry just weeks earlier was going off with her roommate, and she was not crying or plotting revenge. In fact, she was happy, even though nothing good had happened to her. "Happiness for other people…interesting."

Glinda perched herself back on the wall and looked up toward her room. From their window, Elphaba could see Glinda, like a pink flower against the green grass. She heard a knock at their door. Predicting who was on the other side, she glanced out the window one more time and whispered,

"Thanks, Glin."

A.N. I know, not a lot of plot development. It's coming soon. Oh, and by the way…18 DAYS until I see Wicked!


	9. Off To the Emerald City

Strength

A.N. Sorry, everyone! I know it's been a bit longer than my chapters usually take, but I've been a very busy little elf getting ready for the holidays. Thanks for the reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

Glinda stayed out in the courtyard for a while longer. She wanted to give Elphaba and Fiyero as much time together as she could. She only went inside when it began to get dark. On the way up to her room, she stopped to check her and Elphaba's mail. With them having been gone, it was very full. Glinda lifted everything out and quickly sifted through the stack.

"Catalogue, ad, ad…" Glinda sighed. Such was the life of a collage student. She hadn't gotten any real mail in months. As soon as her family decided she was settled in, they had stopped writing her. Elphaba had never gotten any mail at all, except for the letter informing her of her mother's death. Glinda continued sifting through the stack of mail until she found something that made her eyes widen. She let the rest of the mail drop back into the mailbox; she could always come back for it later. Elphaba had to see this right away.

"Elphie, Elphie! Look what came in the…Oh, sorry!" In her hurry to show Elphaba what had come in the mail, Glinda had neglected to knock on the door, and in doing so had caught Elphaba and Fiyero in the midst of a kiss.

"Honestly, Glinda, what could be that important?" As much as Elphaba had grown to love Glinda, there were times when her impatience and perkiness could get annoying.

"You have mail, Elphie. And it's not just any mail. Look!" Glinda showed Elphaba the envelope she had found earlier. Elphaba's own eyes widened upon seeing in, and she was soon just as happy as Glinda.

Fiyero sat on Elphaba's bed, staring at the two roommates. "Can someone explain to me what is going on?" he said.

"This letter, it's…it's addressed to me!" Elphaba exclaimed.

"And we're celebrating this because…"

"Look at the envelope, Fiyero. It's green!" Glinda was now jumping up and down with excitement.

"Once again, I'm going to have to ask you why we're celebrating this. So the envelope is green. It could be just a very early or very belated Lurlinemas card."

"There are only two things wrong with that theory, Fiyero. First of all, I never get Lurlinemas cards, or Lurlinemas anything for that matter. And second of all, this letter is from the Emerald City Palace. Look at the seal on the back." Elphaba pointed to a gold seal on the back of the envelope.

"Why would the Emerald City Palace be writing to you?"

"Well, back when the semester first started, Madame Morrible said that she would write to the Wizard to tell him about my sorcery abilities. Maybe this is his response." Elphaba slowly opened the envelope and removed the letter inside. The letter read:

_Dear Miss Elphaba Thropp,  
It is our pleasure to inform you that, due to the recommendations of Madame Morrible and other faculty at Shiz University, your presence has been requested in the Emerald City for an official meeting with our Wonderful Wizard. The meeting has been set for November 21st, at 1:30 pm. If you so desire, you may bring along up to two companions for your journey to the Emerald City. However, they will not be allowed in the meeting with you. _

"Well, what does it say, Elphie?" Glinda was still bouncing with anticipation.

"It says that I get to meet the Wizard." Elphaba could hardly believe her own words.

Fiyero took the letter out of Elphaba's hands and read it himself. "Elphie, the meeting is just five days away. You're going to need at least two to travel to the Emerald City. Do you really think that Madame Morrible is going to allow you to leave school again just two days after you returned?"

"I don't care. I'm going. And you two are coming with me."

Well Elphaba didn't have to tell Glinda twice. "Oh, Elphie, I'm so happy for you! Come, we have so much to do before we leave!" Glinda grabbed Elphaba's arm and dragged her out of the room.

Fiyero remained on the bed, and took a closer look at the letter. It was postmarked on November 12. However, the date on top of the letter read November 8. According to the letter from her father, Elphaba's mother had passed away on November 11. Why would the Wizard, or even his office assistants, wait an extra four days after writing a letter to actually send it? More importantly, why would they send it the day after her mother died? Surely with her father being the governor of Munchkinland, the death of Elphaba's mother had to have been somewhat well known.

As he walked back to Ozma Towers to begin re-packing for the trip to Emerald City, he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy about this whole situation. He wanted Elphaba to be happy, but he was starting to doubt that her sorcery abilities were the only reason she had been asked to meet with the Wizard. He decided to keep mum about it, though. Elphaba's reaction to the letter was the happiest he'd ever seen her. After a week of seeing her cry, it was refreshing to see her smile and laugh. He decided not to interfere with that, at least for now.


	10. Hidden Past

Strength

A.N. Thanks for the reviews. Less than 1 week until I see Wicked!!!!!

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters

Elphaba didn't bother asking Madame Morrible's permission to leave school. The way she saw it, Madame Morrible had written the letter to the Wizard in the first place, so it should have been obvious to her that Elphaba would be going to he Emerald City upon his reply. Even if Madame Morrible did not see it her way, Elphaba didn't really care. She was going to meet the Wizard and nothing was going to stand in her way.

This disregard for her classes was a new feeling for Elphaba. As she was gathering up her and Glinda's bags the morning of their departure two days after receiving the letter, she caught sight of herself in Glinda's mirror. Instead of quickly looking away as she usually did, she stared at her reflection. Somehow, the girl she saw in the mirror didn't look like her. It was her, of course, but somehow she looked different. She looked brighter; her face had more life. Elphaba smiled as she left the mirror and carried the bags out of the room. She knew she should have felt guilty about leaving, but she didn't. She felt, well, happy; a little like someone else she knew.

"Maybe Fiyero's right about this dancing through life stuff." Elphaba said as she struggled to carry the double load of bags down the hallway. She was relieved to see a very tired looking Glinda coming back up towards her.

"Elphie, do we really have to leave this…" Glinda's sentence was interrupted by a yawn. It was understandable; after all, it was only 5 in the morning. Elphaba had insisted that they leave as early as possible, to avoid the inevitable inquisition that would come with leaving school again.

Elphaba giggled a little bit, and answered, "Yes, we do. Come on, you can sleep on the way there." The two girls slowly proceeded out of the building, taking extreme measures to not make any noise when passing by Madame Morrible's chambers. The met Fiyero by the curb, leaning against a lamppost. His eyes were open, but he didn't seem to be quite awake.

"Yero…Oz to Fiyero!" Fiyero snapped back when Elphaba spoke. He hadn't seen her and Glinda approach.

"Oh, morning Elphie, morning, Glinda. It is morning, isn't it?" To Fiyero, and to Glinda as well, it still seemed as though it was nighttime.

As her two companions got into a discussion of the horrors of a 4:25 am wake-up call, Elphaba tuned them out and listened instead to the voices in her own head. Normally, Elphaba only heard one voice inside herself. But today, she heard many more. One was going on about the Wizard and how great this was that she got to meet him. Another told her not to get her hopes up, that maybe this wouldn't be as great as she'd imagined.

A third voice then entered Elphaba's head, but this time it was not from inside her. This one was from Fiyero. "Elphie, the cab is here. Let's go."

The travelers once again loaded luggage and the cab drove away. After Shiz was out of sight, Elphaba's adrenaline rush from sneaking out began to fade. She looked over at Glinda, who was already fast asleep. Elphaba tried to stay awake as long as she could, in case something should happen, but eventually she decided to stop fighting it. She leaned her head against the already sleeping Fiyero's shoulder and began to drift off herself, no longer afraid to display such affection openly.

All three of them slept for quite some time. Glinda and Fiyero both woke up before Elphaba. They sat for several minutes just watching her sleep. They too saw a difference in her. For the first time, there was a smile on her face as she slept.

Glinda looked from Fiyero to Elphaba several times. Fiyero noticed this and asked, "What? Is something wrong?"

"No…it's just…I never thought that this could happen so fast."

"That what could happen so fast?"

"That a boyfriend and girlfriend could switch personality traits so fast. Look at the two of you. Normally, you're happy all the time and Elphie's worried all the time. But today, she's happier than I've ever seen her and you're looking at her as if she may explode."

Fiyero sighed. "I don't know about this whole thing, Glinda. It seems a little, well…"

He ended his sentence prematurely when he felt Elphaba stirring on his shoulder. He decided to wait until later to explain it to Glilnda.

Elphaba spent the remainder of the ride talking out her nervousness about her meeting with the Wizard. Fiyero and Glinda did their best to calm her, but it was of no use. Glinda began to regret leaving Shiz that morning. They had expected the journey to take much much longer, but as evening fell they saw the green skyline of the Emerald City looming ahead. The driver, apparently, had taken some back roads as a shortcut while they were all asleep, cutting a whole day off of the trip. The plan had been to use a day and a half traveling, to arrive late on the 20th of November. They would then have stayed only one night, and left directly following Elphaba's meeting. Now, however, they had an extra half a day to kill in the Emerald City. Normally that would not have been a problem, but Glinda was sensing that Fiyero was apprehensive about something and knew that whatever that something was would most likely show itself during that extra time.

Glinda's predictions proved to be correct. Later that night, after checking into a hotel, Elphaba sat on the bed in Fiyero's room, which was connected to her and Glinda's. The hotels in the city were much nicer than the inns along the way to Nest Hardings, with even the cheapest hotels being of somewhat livable quality. Elphaba was once again rambling on about meeting the Wizard as Fiyero began to unpack.

"Yero, I'm so excited. I've never felt this way before."

Fiyero didn't turn around at first. When he did, he replied "Yeah, it's great, Elphie. I just…" he cut himself off. He wasn't sure if he should tell her how he really felt about all of this.

It appeared that he didn't have a choice, however. "It's just what?" Now that Elphaba had heard the beginning of the sentence, she wouldn't rest without hearing the end of it.

"It's just that…well, I don't think you should get your hopes up too much. I've heard a lot of things about this Wizard and how he's not really as great as he seems to be, that he's just hiding behind a political and social mask to keep Oz happy."

"Fiyero, how could you say that? The Wizard has done some wonderful things for us. There are no masks to him."

"I'm sure you're right, Elphie. I just…I don't want you to be disappointed."

"Well, I can assure you that I won't be disappointed with the Wizard. But I have to say that I'm a little disappointed with how you're acting. I thought you would have been a little more supportive of this."

"Elphie, I'm very supportive of this whole thing. I just don't want to see you…"

"No, you're not. Something is different about you, and I'm not sure I like it." Elphaba got up and went back into her own room. She found Glinda to be asleep. "Just as well. I don't need her bugging me for details of our first argument." She climbed into the other bed and drifted into a restless sleep.

On the other side of the wall, Fiyero finished his sentence although there was no one around to hear him. "I just don't want to see you get hurt."

The next morning, Elphaba said nothing to Glinda about her fight with Fiyero. It didn't seem to matter anyway, because Glinda insisted on having a girl's day with Elphaba to find the perfect outfit for her to wear to her meeting. This day actually extended well into the night, and Elphaba almost forgot about Fiyero, almost.

Elphaba was to report to the Wizard's palace at 1:30pm the next day. She wished that the meeting had been set for an earlier time, as she didn't thing she could avoid Fiyero for another half a day. She just wanted to go this meeting and prove him wrong; prove to him that the Wizard was everything he said he was and possibly more. Then she could go about the business of making up with him.

Elphaba managed to fake sleep until 11:30. To kill the remaining time, she indulged Glinda's makeover game by letting Glinda style her hair and attempt to apply makeup, although the makeup did little good on her green skin. Since Glinda was very thorough with these tasks, and because getting the makeup off was a challenge without the use of water, it was 1:10 by the time she was done. "Perfect. Just enough time to get to the meeting." Elphaba thought to herself. She hugged Glinda and headed for the palace.

Elphaba learned one thing about the Wizard before even seeing him. The Wizard was not very punctual. Although her appointment was at 1:30, it was almost 2:00 by the time her name was called. Every other person in the office was called before her, even ones that had came in after her. She did find that unfair, but was in no position to complain about such matters.

Eventually, however, her name was called. Elphaba walked down a long hallway to a single translucent door. She turned the knob slowly, not knowing what she would find on the other side.

When she first entered the room, she was first drawn to a large, mechanical, gold head. She heard a voice speak her name, and at first thought that the voice had emerged from the head. It hadn't, however. It had emerged from a small man sitting at a table directly in front of it.

The man then spoke again. "Please, sit down, Elphaba. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"The pleasure's all mine, your Wizard-ness. You said in your letter that you wished to discuss my sorcery abilities…"

The Wizard's reaction to this seemed a little strange. "Huh? Oh, yes. That. We'll get to that eventually. But there is another reason why I've asked you here, one that I couldn't have written in the letter."

"What is it?"

The Wizard paused for a moment, trying to find the best way to say what he had to say. "Have you ever wondered why your abilities are far greater than anyone else's at Shiz? How you got this power?"

"I can't honestly say that I have thought about it in the past, but I would like to know if you can tell me." It didn't occur to Elphaba that the Wizard knowing such information, without ever having met her before, was very unlikely. He was the Wizard. He knew everything.

"Elphaba, you were born in Munchkinland, correct?" Elphaba nodded and the Wizard continued his story. "Almost nineteen years ago now, I was passing through Munchkinland making my official undercover observations of the area. That was something I did quite often back then, but I'm afraid that the years have not been a friend to me and roaming about Oz is not something my body will allow for anymore. Anyway, I was walking through the area of Nest Hardings, when I happened to overhear a man saying goodbye to his wife. I quickly hid behind a shrub to get a better look at the situation-I had to find out what he was leaving his wife for, after all. Being that he was dressed in very formal attire and was carrying a briefcase, I assumed he was leaving on a business trip. I should have left the situation at that, but then I saw the woman. She was so beautiful, and well to make a long story short I ended up having an affair with her."

"How could you do that? What if you had given her a child?"

"Oh, I did think of that. And I took special precautions to make sure that if I did father a child that night, that I would be able to identify him or her as my own."

"Precautions? What do you mean?"

The Wizard stood up and went into a closet in the back of the room. He returned with a small glass bottle, identical to the one Elphaba had been clutching the night she received word of her mother's death. "This bottle, and another that went along with it, was filled with a special elixir. Had no child been conceived that night, it would have had no effect at all. However, any child that was conceived with this elixir in the mother's body would have been born with a severe pigmentation problem. Elphaba, what I'm trying to say is that I am your biological father. That woman was your mother, Melena. The elixir that was in this bottle is what caused your green skin."

Elphaba sat in a silent state of shock. She wasn't sure if she should believe the Wizard or not. On the one hand, his story had offered the one plausible explanation for her skin color that she had ever heard. But on the other hand, it seemed highly unlike the Wizard to go around getting married women pregnant. She decided to fish for a few more answers. Even if the weren't correct, they were answers. "So what does that have to do with my sorcery ability?"

"Oh, yes. That brings me to another uncomfortable topic. You see, Elphaba, I'm not really the great magician that everyone thinks I am. In fact, outside of you and my personal staff, no one in Oz has ever seen me unless I'm behind that thing." He gestured to the large metal head. "I'm not from here, Elphaba. I was born in another world. I only came here when a strange wind caused my hot-air balloon to drift off course. The people here seemed to be in need of a leader, and they chose me. I couldn't say no. You try telling about 2,000 people that you can't get them a better life. Anyway, the reason you have such abilities is because you are a mix of two worlds. Now, I don't know the scientific explanation for it all, but somehow your body chemistry, instead of being pure Ozian or pure other-worldly, is a strange mix of both, and the mixture causes your natural abilities for magic."

Elphaba remained silent for a moment, absorbing what she had just been told. "Ok, so let me get a few things straight here. You are my father, not Frex. You're not really a Wizard, just some guy that got lost in a balloon and got sweet-talked into becoming a leader for a land you knew nothing about. And you are responsible for making me endure a lifetime of ridicule because of this skin?"

"Elphaba, I'm sorry. I never planned to wait this long to tell you. My plan was to return to Nest Hardings a year later and to take any children born of that affair back here with me. That's why I chose the green elixir. I knew that a child with red or blue skin would never be accepted anywhere, but anything green seems to be fine here, even skin. But by then I had transformed from being simply the unknown new leader of Emerald City to being the most famous man in Oz. I couldn't just walk into Nest Hardings, find the green child and make an announcement that the child was actually mine. I never planned on becoming so famous. That's why I hide in here, behind this big head. I was never meant for spotlights, you know."

"So now that you've told me all of this, what am I supposed to do? Go back to Shiz and pretend this never happened? I can't very well go around telling everyone that I'm the illegitimate daughter of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, now can I? Why did you wait nineteen years to tell me this? You could have summoned me at any time. Your timing couldn't have been worse, you know. My mother just died!"

"I know. I should have gotten this out in the open earlier. I waited until you were at Shiz so I would be telling only you, not the rest of your family. That's why I held off the letter a few days. I was unsure of whether I should send it, seeing as how you're not a child anymore and I couldn't just take you in as I was planning to do. But then I heard that Melena died, and well, I just couldn't live with the guilt anymore. I understand if you're upset, Elphaba, but I would like to keep the lines of communication open between you and I."

With as much dignity and composure as she could muster up, Elphaba stood and replied, "Well, I will certainly consider it. Good day."

A.N. Well, this was sure a long one. And, because old man Winter paid us a visit last night and I have the day off (9 degrees without windchill-fun), you lucky people get two new chapters in one day! I'm not really sure if I got the whole Wizard story correct, but please bear with me. Pretty soon I'll have seen the show and I'll know more about things like that.


	11. The Aftermath

Strength 

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

Elphaba proceeded to walk out of the room, and out of the building, with an eerily calm expression. The last place she wanted to go was back to the hotel. She couldn't face Glinda and Fiyero yet. She walked the streets of Emerald City looking for a private nook or alley, showing no signs that anything was wrong. She found a small alley behind an abandoned building not far from her hotel, unusually quiet for 3:00 in the afternoon.

And she lost it.

She fell to the ground against a wall and pulled her knees up to her chest. She couldn't bring herself to cry, however much she wanted to. Her body simply wouldn't let her, as her skin had been burned so much in the past week by crying. Fiyero's tissue trick worked some, but it still left slight burns. Even without tears, Elphaba rocked herself back and forth on the ground and sobbed. She didn't care how loud she was, or who heard her. She only stopped when she sensed the presence of someone else in the alley.

She looked up, and saw a raggedy older man standing over her. His facial hair and clothing suggested that he wasn't the highest on the social ladder, as Glinda would say.

"Hey, you! Look, I found a human size lizard! Come on, lizard! You can be my friend." When the man spoke, his speech was slurred, suggesting to Elphaba that he was most likely drunk. She didn't think much of him calling her a lizard; after all, both drunk and sober people alike had been calling her "lizard girl" all of her life. Still, something about this man told Elphaba that this wasn't the safest place for her to be. She stood up and tried to get away, but the drunk man grabbed her before she could.

"Come on, lizard! Don't run away! I just wanna play with you!"

A million ways of escape ran through Elphaba's mind. If she focused her fear and turned it into anger, her powers would have taken over. But that would have also drawn attention to her, which was the last thing she wanted right now. Against her better judgment, she reverted to the first means of self-defense (and self-destruction) she had ever learned.

She bit him.

The man yanked his hand away from her mouth. Elphaba could see that her bite had done some damage. "Ow! Bad lizard! I don't want to be friends with you anymore." Elphaba's satisfaction at damaging the man's hand was short-lived, as the man then threw her into the wall and left her there.

Elphaba tried to get up, but couldn't. She cursed herself for being so skinny. Had she had more between her skin and her bones, her bones would have had some sort of a cushion when she hit the wall. Instead, Elphaba assumed that her entire right side was either broken or badly bruised.

Elphaba closed her eyes, and hoped for some miracle that would allow the past week and a half to be dream. No such luck occurred, however. She opened her mouth to call out for Fiyero and Glinda but she couldn't bring herself to speak loud enough for anyone else to hear. Not knowing what else to do, she closed her eyes, assuming that if she was meant to live past this day, someone would find her.

Eighteen hours later 

"Elphie? Come on, Elphie. Wake up."

Elphaba's eyes fluttered open at hearing this. She had been scared to do so upon first hearing the voices, because she had not been able to identify who was talking to her. Only two people in Oz called her "Elphie", though. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw those two people standing over her bed. Actually, only one of them was standing over her bed. Fiyero was asleep in a chair next to it. She had no idea where she was, but she didn't care. As long as Fiyero and Glinda were here, she was safe.

It was all Glinda could do not to throw herself on top of Elphaba when she saw that she was awake. "Oh, Elphie! Thank Oz you're awake! Don't you ever do that again, running off into some alley like that. We were both so worried."

"Really? Because that one", Elphaba said, pointing to Fiyero "doesn't look too worried to me."

"He passed out from exhaustion about an hour ago. We were both up all night trying to find you, and I don't think he had been sleeping well since we've been here anyway. I think something has been bothering him."

Elphaba glanced downward for a moment. She knew exactly what was bothering Fiyero. She decided to change the subject quickly. "So where am I?" By now she had gotten a decent look at her surroundings and realized that she wasn't in the hotel anymore.

"You're in the hospital, sweetie. You broke your right leg pretty badly, and fractured your right arm as well. You bruised a whole bunch of other places, too. What happened, Elphie?"

The memories of the previous afternoon came rushing back to Elphaba. She glanced downward again, unable to talk about what had happened just yet. Glinda put a hand on Elphaba's shoulder.

"It's alright, Elphie. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I'm just glad you're safe. Hey, are you hungry?"

Even though she wasn't really that hungry, Elphaba nodded and sent Glinda down to the hospital cafeteria to get some food. Once she had left, Elphaba reached over and gently touched Fiyero's face.

Glinda had been correct; he wasn't sleeping very well. Elphaba's touch was enough to wake him up.

"Hey, Fabala. You're awake. How are you feeling?"

Elphaba glanced away at hearing the nickname first given to her by her…no, not her father. She once again considered arguing the use of the nickname, but decided against it. It was the only link to her childhood that she had left, other than Nessa, of course. And it actually sounded cute when Fiyero said it.

"I'm alright, I guess. Fiyero, I'm sorry about the other day. I…"

"No, you were right. I wasn't being very supportive. I'm sorry, Fabala."

Elphaba opened up her mouth to tell Fiyero the whole story, but was stopped when Glinda came in, carrying three cups of fruit. Elphaba wasn't sure she could tell both of them at once, so she made small talk with them as they ate. Her story could wait a little while longer.

A.N. OK, how is it? Please review!


	12. Late Night Confessions

Strength

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters

Elphaba remained in the hospital for four more days. Although Fiyero and Glinda were relieved beyond words that she was safe, they noticed that she was very quiet, even more so than usual. She seemed reluctant to start conversations, and would only respond to questions with "Fine" or "Ok."

On the morning of their departure for Shiz, Elphaba once again felt the unwelcome emotion of fear. Fear for what Madame Morrible would say when she returned with her arm and leg in casts and unable to walk without assistance. Fear for whether or not news of exactly what the Wizard had said during her meeting had spread back to Shiz. Fear that she would run into that drunken man again. And most of all, fear that Glinda and Fiyero wouldn't love her anymore once they found out the lack of strength with which she handled the whole situation. Over the past four days, she had had a considerable amount of time to go over the whole situation in her head. She couldn't believe that the girl in her memory was her, just like she couldn't believe that the girl in the mirror was her six days earlier. Curling up in a fetal position on the ground in an alley was not her. Though, even she was beginning to lose sight of who she was, so who was she to say that it wasn't?

Fiyero carried Elphaba out of the hospital to the waiting cab. At first, Elphaba had insisted on hobbling all the way out there while leaning on Fiyero's shoulder for support, but it became very obvious that that was not going to be a very efficient way of getting her around. He placed her in the cab next to Glinda, who had gone ahead with the baggage. He then climbed in himself, and gave the driver the signal to go.

Elphaba closed her eyes as the cab pulled away from the curb in front of the hospital. She didn't want to see any more of the Emerald City. This city that she thought would bring her universal acceptance had actually brought her entire sense of self-understanding crashing down. When she left Shiz, she was Elphaba Thropp, the daughter of Frex and Melena Thropp. Granted, she was the unwanted daughter, but she was the daughter nonetheless. Now she didn't know who she was. She tried to tell herself that the Wizard was wrong. It was all a misunderstanding and nothing had to change. But she knew in her heart that this was a lie.

She did know one thing for sure, though. She was still the friend of Glinda and the girlfriend of Fiyero. They would stand by her no matter what, wouldn't they? She once again rested her head on Fiyero's shoulder, grateful for the security it provided. It reminded her that he was there, and that she was safe. For some reason, she never felt completely safe anymore either.

Fiyero and Glinda glanced at each other across the cab. They each knew what the other was thinking. Something was wrong. They both knew that something bad had happened to Elphaba, but they weren't sure how to get it out of her.

They also tried to sleep away the ride back to Shiz, but sleep did not come as easily to Glinda or Fiyero as it did to Elphaba. Fortunately, this driver also took the back roads, so the trip was not terribly long. As they pulled up to Shiz, Fiyero was glad to see that it was starting to get dark out. No one would see them walk in. He lifted Elphaba out of the cab, alarmed at how easy the task was even with the added weight of the casts. He carried her towards Crage Hall, but he stopped short when he saw one of the Amas standing in the lobby.

"The one night they put a guard out there!" Glinda cried with exasperation in her voice.

Fiyero knew that he would never be allowed to carry Elphaba up to her room. He also knew that Glinda would never be able to carry Elphaba up there.

It didn't matter, anyway, because as they were trying to figure out what to do a voice came out of the darkness.

"Oh, I see our weary travelers have once again returned." Madame Morrible slowly moved close enough so that she could be seen. "You know, I had no problem allowing the three of you to miss classes for a few days, but for you to just up an leave again without asking for permission first is a display of impudence that I don't like to see among my student. Granted, Miss Elphaba was extended an invitation along with two companions. I received the same invitation in my office. But I don't understand why you decided to extend your little vacation an extra four days when you still have work to be made up from your last excursion…"

"_Vacation?!" _Glinda stepped forward and held a hand up to stop Madame Morrible's lecture. "_Excuse me_, but does it look like we actually had fun on this trip? Madame Morrible, if you have not already noticed, Miss Elphaba is injured. She was in the hospital for quite a few days. We did _not_ extend our stay simply to miss more classes. Furthermore, I do not think that this is the appropriate time to be lecturing any of us, especially Miss Elphaba."

Madame Morrible looked at Elphaba, who was now shaking in Fiyero's arms, partly from the cold air and partly from nervousness. "Oh, so I see. Well, I suppose then that you have all learned your lesson from this little adventure, haven't you? I don't expect that we will be seeing anything like this from you in the future. Now, I suppose you should be getting back to your rooms. It's quite late."

For once, Madame Morrible did something that was helpful. She told the Ama in the lobby of Crage Hall that Fiyero should be allowed to carry Elphaba up to her room. Once they got there, Fiyero laid Elphaba down on her bed and gently tucked her in and said, "Ok, Fabala. I'm going to go back to my room now. Try and get some sleep. I'll be back to check on you in the morning."

He kissed her on the forehead, said goodnight to Glinda, and left. Elphaba tried to sleep, but found it to be impossible. For one thing, she had slept through the entire ride home, so she wasn't as exhausted as Fiyero and Glinda were. But there was more to Elphaba's inability to sleep than a lack of exhaustion. Every time she closed her eyes, the events of the past week flashed before her. She tried as hard as she could to stop it. She dug up every happy memory she could think of, but the few happy memories she had led right back to where she was. Eventually, she gave up and opened her eyes.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Even after they had adjusted, she could only make out shadows. She turned on her side and looked at Glinda in her own bed across the room. She wished that Glinda was awake. She needed to get this pain out of her.

What Elphaba didn't know was that Glinda was awake. She couldn't sleep either, although she was very tired. Sensing that Elphaba was also awake, she sat up slightly and whispered, "Elphie? Are you still awake?"

For a few moments there was no answer, and then Elphaba's voice, much softer and weaker than usual, said "Yeah, I can't sleep. Glinda?"

"Yes, Elphie?"

"Could you come over here? I need to talk about something."

Glinda had a slight idea of what Elphaba was going to talk about. She got out of her bed and made her way to her friend's across the room. It was a bit difficult for both of them to get into the bed with Elphaba's casts limiting her movement, but somehow they made it work. Once Glinda was at her side, Elphaba took a deep breath and began to tell her story.

"Ok…Back when I had my meeting with…with the Wizard…it wasn't just to talk about my sorcery powers. It turns out that…the Wizard is…my father."

This was not what Glinda had expected to hear. "What? Elphie, how is that possible?"

So Elphaba went on to tell her about the Wizard's affair with her mother, and how the Wizard had no actual power thus giving her enormous powers. After she had finished, Glinda began to gently rub her back.

"It's going to be ok, Elphie. So your father is a different person than you thought. That doesn't have to change you any. You're still our strong, stubborn Elphie, no matter who your father is."

Elphaba shook her head slightly. "But that's just it, Glinda! I feel like I'm changing. After the meeting, instead of being strong and brushing it off like I normally would, I went into an abandoned alley, curled up against the wall, and just lost it. At least, I thought the alley was abandoned. This drunk guy came along and thought I was a lizard; he wanted to keep me as a pet. He grabbed me and had me in a tight grip, so I did the first thing that came to my mind."

"And what was that?" Glinda expected that Elphaba had used her powers to throw the man out of the alley or something.

Instead, Elphaba said, "I bit him." Seeing Glinda's amused expression she continued. "See, when I was very small I had unusually large teeth. Until I learned how to control myself I bit everything that came within 6 inches of my mouth. I even chewed myself up quite a bit. I still have some scars from it. Obviously, I've learned how to stop myself now, but whenever I get into situations like that it's still my gut instinct. Anyway, the guy decided he didn't want a lizard who would bite him, so he threw me into the wall pretty hard. I passed out, and I guess that's where you found me."

Glinda nodded. "When you didn't come back to the hotel, we began to get very worried. We searched all around the Palace area, but unfortunately we were in the one city in Oz where you blend into everything. It took us almost all night to find you. Poor thing, you were shaking so hard we weren't sure what to do first. I wanted to take you back to the hotel and warm you up, but Fiyero took one look at that leg of yours and insisted that we bring you to the hospital."

Her leg. Elphaba hadn't even given the broken bones a second thought. For the first time, she reached down and felt the cast on her leg and said, "You know, I thought that meeting the Wizard would make everything better. Everything would just go away. The unloving family, the green skin, the pointing, the staring; they would all just disappear, and I would be happy. But instead it made everything worse."

Glinda opened up her mouth to speak again, but it was pre-empted by a yawn.

"See? Here I am, keeping you up all night with my stupid insecurities. I'm sorry I got you up, Glinda." Elphaba said as she fell back against her pillow.

Glinda stood and seized the opportunity to tuck her friend back into bed. "No, Elphie. I'm glad you told me. We both knew something was wrong with you and we were getting really worried. Doesn't it feel better having told someone?"

As much as Elphaba hated to admit it, it did. In response to her nod, Glinda said "Now, I just need you to promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Tomorrow, you need to tell Fiyero."

A.N. Sorry this took a little longer. I hope you all had a very merry Christmas. I finally saw Wicked on Thursday-it was so awesome! Please review; now that I've seen the show I'm sure this will be getting much better. Lots of Fiyeraba in the next chapter!


	13. First Dates and Unexpected Returns

Strength

A.N. Thanks for the reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters

The next morning, Glinda didn't bother waking Elphaba up to go to her first class. While she knew that Elphaba would be upset, she also knew that there was no way Elphaba would be able to get there anyway and it was better if she at least got some extra sleep.

Elphaba slowly opened her eyes, and bolted upright upon seeing the clock. Next to it was a note from Glinda:

_Elphie, I didn't bother waking you up. You would have never made it to class with your leg anyway. I'll explain to the professor what happened and catch you up when I get back. Fiyero should stop by later; remember your promise!_

_ Glinda_

Just as Elphaba was setting the note back on her nightstand, she heard a knock at the door. She attempted to stand up and answer it, but found it impossible and reverted to yelling "Come in"

At first, she was relieved to see Fiyero come in. "Hey, Elphie. I would have thought you'd be in class right now."

She smiled. "Usually I would, but with this thing", she said pointing to the cast on her leg, "I'm not exactly mobile. Glinda's getting the work for me."

"You should get some crutches or something. You can't stay in this room for six weeks."

"Crutches wouldn't help me either. You need to hold one in each hand, and with my arm in a cast too I wouldn't be able to do that."

"Well you still can't stay in here for six weeks. Come on, let's go somewhere for lunch. It'll be our first real date."

Elphaba considered saying no, but instead just nodded. "Ok. I just need to get dressed first."

"Do you need any help?"

"No, Fiyero. I'm a big girl. I can dress myself, thank you. Now turn around."

Although Fiyero knew that there was no easy way for Elphaba to get to her closet, never mind dress herself, he obeyed. He amused himself by looking at the large number of posters on the wall by Glinda's bed. Occasionally, he would hear a crash of some kind and ask "You ok over there?" to which Elphaba would always respond "Yes."

Dressing herself was not as easy as Elphaba thought it would be. She managed to get to her closet by pulling herself up on the bedpost. She grabbed the first garment she could get her hands on and threw it on the bed. She then threw herself back onto the bed, knocking over the contents of her nightstand in the process. After assuring Fiyero that she was still alive, she started to take off the dress she had been wearing yesterday, only to be stopped by her broken arm, which was tied up in a sling. She managed to undo the sling and let the cast fall free. The weight of the cast shocked her at first and she leaned a bit to one side. She began to struggle with the dress again, only to find that it was impossible to get it off while she was sitting down. She pulled herself up on the bedpost again, this time using the hand on her broken arm to grab it. She then used her free hand to undo the fasteners on her dress. Instead of trying to pull it over her head, she allowed it to drop to her feet. Still clinging to the bedpost, she attempted to step out of the dress, but ended up on the floor instead.

The noise of Elphaba falling to the floor prompted Fiyero to quickly turn his head. He looked at Elphaba and said, "Come on, Elphie. We've been here for ten minutes already. Are you sure you don't need a little help?"

Elphaba took a moment to survey her situation before responding, "Ok, I guess I could use a little help. But for the record, if I hadn't fallen down I would be done by now."

"Uh-huh. Sure, Elphie." Fiyero crossed the room, lifted Elphaba off of the ground and sat her back on the bed. He took the dress that she had gotten out earlier and slipped it over her head. Elphaba was able to get her good arm through the sleeve, while Fiyero struggled with the broken arm. He then stood her up and allowed the dress to fall the rest of the way. Elphaba grabbed one of her boots from the floor by the bed and put it on her un-broken foot. "Now, don't tell me that you're going to tie the laces on that thing with one hand."

Elphaba sighed as she lifted her foot so Fiyero could tie her shoe. He then tied the sling back around her arm. "Ok, I'm ready. Let's go." said Elphaba as she extended her arms, inviting Fiyero to lift her up. Fiyero lifted her off of the bed and the two left on their first date.

Given how Elphaba had just skipped a class, they decided it would be for the best if they did lunch off-campus so no faculty would see them. They ate at a small restaurant, far away enough that no one from Shiz would conveniently walk in on their own lunch hour but close enough that Fiyero was able to carry Elphaba there without much difficulty. Of course, carrying her anywhere was never that difficult. That was one of the reasons Fiyero had decided to make their first real date a meal. He wanted to make her eat something while he was with her, just to prove to him that she did eat. The two of them had a really good time together. For at least a couple hours, Elphaba was able to laugh and almost forget about all that had happened to her.

After they had finished their meal, Fiyero carried Elphaba back to her room. Elphaba had decided not to go to any of her afternoon classes either. She didn't want to make Fiyero carry her all the way there. When they got back to her room, Elphaba saw the note from Glinda on the floor and the line "Remember your promise" seemed to jump out at her. Even though she hated to break the happy mood, she had to tell him now.

"Yero, we need to talk.", she said.

"Haven't we been doing that for the past two hours?"

"Well, this is different." Elphaba took a deep breath, trying to organize what she had to stay. "Remember back in the Emerald City when we had that argument about the Wizard?"

"Well, from what I remember it was more about being supportive."

"Fiyero…I'm so sorry." Elphaba's voice started to choke up again, and Fiyero rushed from across the room to her side. "I was completely wrong. The Wizard…wasn't what I expected at all. He's just some man who got blown into Oz in a balloon and decided to become the leader. You were right, I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. I should have known better."

"About what, Fabala? How could you have known that?" Fiyero put his arms around her shoulder. "It's alright, it's nothing to get that upset over."

Elphaba turned her head towards him and said, "I'm not done. I'm not really that upset over the Wizard being less than I thought he was…I'm upset over the Wizard being more than I thought he was."

"Care to elaborate on that?", said Fiyero.

"The Wizard had an affair with my mother 19 years ago. The Wizard is my real father, not Frex."

Now Fiyero understood Elphaba's reaction to this whole situation. It was as if she had lost both parents in the same month. He wasn't sure what to say, so he reverted to rubbing her back as she continued speaking.

"I just feel different now. I feel weaker. Before, I was strong. I didn't have a lot going for me, but at least I was strong. That's who I was. But now, I don't know who I am."

Now Fiyero knew what to say. "What do you mean, you don't know who you are? You're still Elphaba. You're a little distraught, yes, but anyone would be in a situation like yours. You're still just as strong as you were before."

"Fiyero, if I'm so strong why did I curl up on the ground in an abandoned alley after the meeting and completely lose it? Why did I allow some drunk guy to throw me into a wall and why did I allow myself to pass out? And why did I allow myself to believe that meeting the Wizard would make everything better?"

"Well, let's see. I think, and remember, I'm no professional at this, that you went into the alley because you didn't want to bring your problems to us back at the hotel, because you didn't want us being upset as well, so since you're so caring you decided to deal with this on your own. As for the drunk guy, I don't really think you allowed him to throw you into the wall. I'm sure you tried to defend yourself, didn't you?"

Elphaba nodded. "I bit him."

Fiyero appeared confused by this, but shrugged it off and kept going. "See, you tried to get away. You fought back. Being strong doesn't mean winning all the time. Now, as for you passing out, I really don't think there was much you could have done about that either. And as for believing in the Wizard, I just have to say that during those few days after you got that invitation, you were more beautiful than you had ever been."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I saw hope in your eyes, Elphie. I'd seen you be sad, angry, scared, but never hopeful, never truly happy. When you saw that green envelope, your eyes had a look in them that I'd never seen before. That's why I was so worried about you meeting the Wizard. The truth was, I had heard rumors that he wasn't all that he claimed he was, and I didn't want you to get hurt again. I didn't want you to lose that look."

"I'm sorry I got so mad at you."

"That's ok. I'm still alive, so you couldn't have been too angry. And, just for the record, I can think of one more example of how you're still the same as before."

"Really? And what would that be?"

"Well, you're just as stubborn as you ever were. You insisted on trying to dress yourself this morning and we both knew that wasn't going to happen."

Elphaba smiled as she pulled Fiyero into a hug. "I love you, Yero."

"I love you too, Fabala."

Just then there, was a knock at the door. Thinking it was Glinda, who had since learned to knock if she suspected Fiyero was in the room, Elphaba yelled "Come in."

But it wasn't Glinda at the door. Instead, Nessarose wheeled herself in.

"Elphaba, I have terrible news."

A.N. Ooh, a cliffhanger! Don't worry, I'll try to be fast. I'm on break so that pesky little thing called school shouldn't be getting in my way this week. Please review!


	14. More Bad News

Strength

A.N. Thanks for the reviews! Happy 2005, everyone!

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

"Nessa! When did you get back?" Elphaba attempted to stand up in shock, but then remembered her leg. Nessa eyed her sister up and down, and gave her a look asking her to explain her new disability.

"Yes, you've missed quite an eventful two weeks. But I'll fill you in later. What is this terrible news? When did you get back?"

Nessa wheeled herself closer to Elphaba. It was a nice feeling, being more mobile then someone else. Sure, she still couldn't walk, but at least she could wheel herself from place to place. "I just got back today. I just saw Glinda on the way up; she'll probably be bursting in here any moment to inform you of my…"

As if on cue, Glinda appeared in the doorway. "Elphie, you won't believe who I just…oh, I guess you know already. Welcome back, Nessa!"

"Apparently Nessa has terrible news for us." Fiyero said.

"Oh, not more bad news! What is it this time?" Glinda whined.

"Well, if you three would let me finish a sentence maybe I could tell you!" Nessa said. She waited for a few seconds to make sure it would stay quiet before continuing. "Elphie, Father is very sick. That's why I came back here; I needed to get you. He wants to see you again, Elphie."

Elphaba knew there was no way that she was going back, but she humored Nessa for a little bit longer. "What exactly is wrong with him?"

"They aren't exactly sure. It's not as much a physical affliction as it is an emotional one. But they do know that he doesn't have much time left."

Elphaba sighed. This wasn't going to be easy to say. "Nessa, I…I can't. I've been roaming around too much in the past few weeks. Besides, look at me! I don't think I'm in any condition to travel."

"What do you mean, roaming around to much? You've been back from Nest Hardings for at least two weeks now. Surely you've made up all of your work. Oh, honestly, Elphie, why won't you come home to say goodbye to your father?"

"Nessa, he's not my father." Elphaba said in a very straightforward voice.

"Elphie, he didn't mean any of that. I'm sure it was just something he said in the heat of the moment."

"Nessa, listen to me. He's not my father." Elphaba sighed again, preparing to tell this story for the third time in two days. She explained the entire Emerald City saga to Nessa, whose eyes widened more and more as the story wore on.

After she had finished, Nessa struggled to find what to say. "Well, that does explain a lot. Your powers, your skin…But why can't you come back and speak to him anyway? Whether he was your father or not, he still raised you."

"There is no way I am going. I can't walk, and I'm not dragging Fiyero back with me to carry me around Nest Hardings."

"I cannot believe you, Elphaba!" Before Elphaba could reply, Nessarose had wheeled herself out of the room.

Elphaba spent the rest of the afternoon and evening lost in her own thoughts. Fiyero stayed for quite awhile, but eventually had to leave to get back to his own room. Glinda sat on her bed, pretending to study. She watched Elphaba from the safety of behind one of her textbooks. Elphaba had her own book out, but judging by the fact that she had been on the same page for at least fifteen minutes Glinda assumed that she was also only pretending to read.

Glinda decided not to pressure Elphaba to talk, and thus was very relieved when she heard Elphaba's voice from across the room.

"Glinda? Do you think I'm doing the right thing?"

"Of course, Elphie. It's perfectly understandable that…"

"No, Glinda. I didn't ask if it was understandable. Understandable doesn't make it right."

Glinda sighed. This was going to be another all-nighter. "Elphie, I agree with you. There is no way that, in your condition, you could travel all the way to Nest Hardings just to say goodbye to a man who not only isn't your father but never really treated you that well anyway. But…"

"Oh, no. Glinda's thinking again" thought Elphaba.

"I do think that you should say goodbye in some form. It is the man's dying wish, Elphie. Whether he was your father or not, you should at least grant him that. Why not write a letter? You could send it with Nessa in the morning; I assume she'll be returning."

"Oh, sweet Oz" Elphaba shot up in bed, alarming Glinda.

"What? What is it, Elphie?"

"If our father dies, that means that I'll be the next governor of Munchkinland." Elphaba grabbed onto Glinda like a small child would grab onto their parent. "Glinda, I don't want to be the governor. I can't. Not after all that's happened."

Glinda, still shocked by Elphaba's sudden embrace, slowly moved her friend's arms from around her shoulders. "Elphie, calm down. Just try and get some rest now, alright? I promise, I'll help you deal with all of this in the morning when you're not as tired and we can both think better."

Elphaba nodded silently. She had a look of slight embarrassment on her face, most likely from suddenly grabbing Glinda. She closed her eyes and lay her head back on her pillow.

She did try very hard to get to sleep. But Elphaba knew that she was never going to be able to make it through the night without doing _something_ about her situation. She reached over to her nightstand and grabbed a notebook and pen that she had rested there during her pretend study session and began to write her letter to her…no, to Frex.

_Dear Frex,_

You may have noticed that I am no longer addressing you as Father. I have found out, both from overhearing your conversation with Nanny and from other reliable sources, that I am not your biological child. Even so, you did give me as stable of a home as you could and for that I thank you. I am sorry that I cannot personally be there to deliver this message; however, I am injured and incapable of walking at the moment.

Elphaba found that sentence particularly hard to write. She was never good at admitting her downfalls, and it was almost impossible for her to admit, even in a letter, that she was incapable of doing anything.

_I did not think it was practical for me to travel right now. So I shall be sending this letter back to you with Nessarose. Don't worry, Frex, she well taken care of. If you had wanted to see me to ask forgiveness of me, then rest assured that I have forgiven you for everything. If you wanted to see me to reveal to me that I am, in fact, not your child, I have already been informed of this information. _

Elphaba set her notebook and pen back down on the nightstand. She knew that she should put some heartfelt message at the end of the letter; after all, this was most likely the final contact she would have with Frex. But she found some truth in what Glinda had said. It was difficult to think when she was so tired. The action of starting the letter had cleared her mind enough that she could sleep.

A loud knock on the door woke Elphaba up the next morning. Before she could verify who it was, the door opened and Nessa wheeled herself in. She smiled as she saw Elphaba in bed, unable to get up. It felt good to be the less disabled one for a change.

"Elphaba, I'm leaving for Nest Hardings. Are you sure you won't come with me? I know it would mean a lot to our father if…"

Elphaba decided not to reiterate the fact that Frex was not her father. It was obvious that Nessa refused to believe it. "I cannot go, Nessa. You know how hard it is traveling when you're disabled. Here," she said, handing Nessa the letter from the night before. There would be no time to add any heartfelt messages. "Take this to him."

Although she was disappointed that Elphaba refused to accompany her, Nessa accepted the one small attempt at a last contact. She turned and looked at Glinda, who was still sound asleep. "Tell Glinda and Fiyero I said goodbye."

"What about Boq? Have you stopped to see him?" Elphaba asked, suddenly remembering the Munchkin boy with whom her sister was so smitten.

Nessa paused for a moment, as if she was trying to remember him as well. "Oh, yes, I forgot to go see Boq. Has he been missing me terribly?"

Even though Elphaba had not seen very much of Boq in the recent weeks, she nodded to keep her sister happy. She figured it was the least she could do. "You better get over there, his first class is pretty early and you don't want to miss him."

Nessa nodded, and wheeled herself out of the room. As she disappeared into the hallway, Glinda opened her eyes. "Was someone in here?" she asked groggily.

Elphaba nodded. "Nessa. I gave her a letter that I wrote last night after you went to bed. She went to go see Boq and then she's leaving."

Glinda sat up, balancing on one elbow. "You know, I've never seen Nessa this independent before. A month ago she wouldn't leave campus without you or Boq, not even to get something to eat, but now she's traveling all the way to Munchkinland by herself."

"I guess I'm not the only one changing these days." Elphaba said. "Speaking of getting something to eat, I'm kind of hungry. Glinda, would you mind going and getting breakfast?"

Glinda nodded and went downstairs to the dining room. She returned with the food only five minutes later, and seeing Elphaba's surprise at her speed, said "You should have broken your leg a long time ago. All I had to do was tell the Ama that I was bringing food up to you and they let me go right to the front of the line." She handed Elphaba a trey and sat down on the bed next to her.

When they were almost done eating, Glinda remembered her promise from the night before. "So, you wrote a letter last night?"

"Yeah. It didn't come out very well, though."

"Well, that is because you were so tired and upset last night. I told you to sleep on it first."

"Yes, Mommy." Elphaba said sarcastically. She was becoming a bit tired of everyone's newfound bossiness towards her. Actually, it wasn't new; Elphaba had always been able to resist it before. "But it's a good thing I wrote it last night because I wouldn't have had time to write it this morning."

"Yes, I suppose that's true. So anyway, what do you propose we do about this governor business? Are you sure you would be the next governor? Aren't you a little young? I mean, not that you couldn't handle it…"

"No, Glinda, you're right. I am far too young for the job. No matter how smart or talented a sorceress I may be, I simply don't have enough life experience to handle a job like that. But that doesn't matter. The charter clearly states that, upon the passing of a governor, the oldest living offspring at or above the age of 18 will take over. I am almost 19, therefore I am that offspring. And Munchkins are very picky about rituals like this."

"But since you are not Frex's biological child, wouldn't that make you inelligable?"

"If the Munchkins knew that, yes. But they don't know and they certainly are not going to believe me if I attempt to tell them. Believe me, I know how Munchkins think."

"I take it that's how Nessa knows what Boq's thinking at all times."

"Possibly. Anyway, there really is no choice. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm going to have to be the new governor."

Glinda looked sadly at her friend. "Does that mean you're going to have to leave Shiz? You can't leave, Elphie."

"I'm sorry, Glinda, but there's no way out of…"

"Wait! I think I thought of something! You said that the Munchkins wouldn't believe _you_. But would they believe someone else, someone of a little more importance?"

"Like who?"

"You know who, Elphaba."

Elphaba sighed. She did know who Glinda was talking about. She pulled out the same notebook from the night before and began to write to the one person who could get her out of this situation.


	15. Back to Reality

Strength

A.N. Thanks for the reviews

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters

Elphaba was unsure of how to start her letter to the Wizard. It wasn't as if she had made a huge scene leaving the palace, but she didn't want to appear as if she was crawling back to him.

Dear Mr. Wonderful Wizard of Oz 

_ I hope my hasty exit after our meeting was not taken to mean that I did not want to keep communications open between the two of us. The information you gave me that day required much thought on my part. As you can imagine, it was quite a lot to find out in such a short amount of time. However, I have accepted it now and find myself in need of your assistance. _

_ As you well know, I was raised believing Frex, the governor of Munchkinland, was my father. He has now fallen ill, and my half-sister Nessarose has informed me that he does not have much time left. While this does cause me a great deal of distress, this is not why I'm writing to you. You see, after Frex's eventual death, I am in line to become the next governess of Munchkinland. I'm sure you would agree that a first-year collage student is in no way equipped to handle this type of job. There is no way around it, though. Munchkins, as I'm sure you know, value rituals and traditions very deeply. If there is any way at all that you can convince the Munchkins that I am not the right leader for them, please don't hesitate to do so. _

_Sincerely, _

_Elphaba Thropp_

Elphaba threw her notebook down on the bed in disgust. She knew what she had written would not get her any assistance from the Wizard. First of all, most of it was a lie. She had not fully accepted the information, she would never consider Nessa to only be her half-sister, and Frex's illness was only contributing to her distress through the situation that his impending death would cause. She also knew that the Wizard would never publicly address all of the Munchkins at once. He had told her that he was too old to travel around Oz, and that he had never let anyone see him unless he was behind that giant head.

Glinda, who had begun to get ready for class, looked up at her friend. "Are you ok?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer.

Elphaba shook her head. "Glinda, there is no way this is ever going to work." She flung herself back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

As Glinda was debating what to do next, she heard a knock at the door. She opened it and saw Fiyero standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Glinda. I stopped by to see how Elphie is doing." He looked into the room and saw Elphaba's current position on the bed. "Um, what's she doing?"

"The same thing she's been doing since all of this started: re-evaluating her sense of self." Glinda replied.

"You go to class. I think I can help" said Fiyero. Glinda considered protesting, but simply nodded her head and left the room. Once she was a considerable distance down the hall, Fiyero entered and shut the door.

"Having fun?" he said, causing Elphaba to sit up. "I came by to bring you to class."

"Fiyero, I don't think…"

"Yes, Elphie. I know. And that is precisely the problem. The rest of your life may be falling apart, but there are two things that I can assure you I will personally make sure stay the same."

"And they would be?"

"First, I can promise you that I'm always going to be here and I'm always going to take care of you, whether you want me too or not. And second, I am going to make sure that you remain the smartest girl in Shiz. And I plan on fulfilling both of those promises right now. Now, let's get you dressed."

"Fiyero I told you the other day that I can dress myself."

"Yes, but then you spent ten minutes getting your old dress off and ended up on the floor, remember? We don't have time for that now." Fiyero said as he stood at Elphaba's closet.

"You really don't have to do this, Yero. I'm sure I could…"

"Elphie, I told you. I'm taking care of you whether you like it or not. Now stop trying to talk me out of it or I'm dressing you in something from Glinda's closet."

Elphaba gave up trying to convince Fiyero that she could dress herself. She knew that if she tried, she would end up on the floor again. But the idea of allowing him to dress her made her feel so…helpless.

Fiyero dressed her quickly, and then started rummaging around the room, looking for something.

"What are you looking for?" Elphaba asked.

"Your books and stuff. I know you haven't been to class in like 2 weeks, so I figured they might be buried somewhere." He came across a hairbrush, and threw it onto the bed. "Here, brush your hair while I look."

While Elphaba didn't appreciate Fiyero ordering her to brush her hair, she was happy to have at least one task that she could do on her own. Meanwhile, Fiyero continued to hunt for the missing books. He came up empty, finding only a notebook.

"Never mind, Yero. I can just look on with you or Glinda. Let's just go, we're late already."

"Yeah, you're right. The professor will be so happy to see you again that he probably won't even notice." Fiyero lifted Elphaba off of the bed, and carried her to class.

When Fiyero carried Elphaba into the lecture hall, Elphaba felt something that wasn't new, but that she hadn't felt in awhile. She felt like she wanted to disappear. She knew she would get stares when she entered. She had always gotten stares. But she hadn't expected the severity of them. Somehow, being carried into the room ten minutes late made them sting even more than usual.

Elphaba was relieved once she had settled into her seat, although doing so wasn't an easy task with the cast on her leg. She opened the notebook Fiyero had found and immersed herself completely in the class. For that short time, everything else went away. Everything was better.

As the class was drawing to a close, Madame Morrible entered the room. She approached Elphaba, knowing very well that Elphaba couldn't approach her.

"Miss Elphaba, I'm glad to see you getting back to your studies, my dear. I need to have a word with you. Stop by my office later on. We have some things to discuss."

A.N, OK, I'm sorry for the pointless Fiyeraba fluff chapter, but I've had a lot of things on my mind lately. School musical rehearsals have started and I'm rapidly approaching my drivers test. I promise more plot development in the next chapter. Please review!


	16. Meetings and Blame

Strength 

A.N. Thanks for the reviews. Also, I would like to take this opportunity to wish Idina Menzel a speedy recovery from her injuries on Jan. 8th. Whether or not she performs on Jan. 9th, she had an amazing run as Elphaba and she will be missed.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters

Fiyero waited until all the other students and the professor had left the room before attempting to get Elphaba out of the desk. It wasn't the most graceful process and he didn't want anyone to be staring at them while he did it. He had seen Madame Morrible approach her earlier, but had not heard exactly what was said.

"So what did Horrible Morrible want?" he asked as he struggled to get her out of the desk.

"She said that she wanted to "discuss" some things with me." Elphaba said, wincing slightly as her broken leg hit the metal bar holding the desk together.

"Well, you can't be in trouble, right? You've been sitting in your room since we got back so you couldn't have done anything." Fiyero said as he lifted Elphaba up and headed for the door. "Come on, we'll go there right now. No use worrying about this all day."

Although Elphaba knew Fiyero was right about that, she still was not thrilled at the idea of going to see Madame Morrilbe right at that moment. However, she kept quiet. She knew if she waited, she would spend the day thinking up all kinds of things she might have done and would most likely drive herself crazy.

When they arrived at Madame Morrible's office, Fiyero sat in one of the waiting room chairs with Elphaba on his lap. He could sense she was nervous. He found it odd that Madame Morrible had no secretary working in her office. He pulled Elphaba a little closer to him as they waited for her to come out.

It was another five minutes before Madame Morrible finally emerged from her office. "Oh, Miss Elphaba. I've been expecting you, dear. Please, come in." she said in a sickeningly fake pleasant voice. Fiyero stood up to carry Elphaba into the office, and Madame Morrible smiled a little. Perhaps she realized that there was no way that Elphaba could run out on her. She allowed Fiyero to carry her into the office and place her in a chair, and then gave him a look to let him know that she wanted him to leave.

Sensing that he was no longer welcome in the office, he knelt down next to Elphaba and whispered "I love you, Fabala. I'll be right outside waiting for you." Elphaba smiled at him to let him know she would be alright, and then he left.

"Well, Miss Elphaba, I see you've started a little relationship with Mr. Tiggular. Not that it's any of my business, of course. No, no. I've actually brought you here to discuss some things about your trip to the Emerald City."

The prospect of telling that story one more time brought Elphaba to the verge of tears. Still, she kept her composure and replied "What things are you referring too?"

Madame Morrible dropped the fake sweetness. "What happened with the Wizard?"

For a moment, Elphaba tried to avoid the truth. "What do you mean, what happened with the Wizard? I went in, I met him, and I left."

There was no fooling Madame Morrible, however. "Listen, you had better start telling me what really happened. I was certain that the Wizard would take you on as an apprentice of some sort. You must have messed up somewhere. What did he say to you, exactly?"

Elphaba debated whether or not to tell Madame Morrible. On the one hand, she wanted the truth and Elphaba didn't want to get on her bad side right now. But on the other hand, telling the truth was sure to lead to a breakdown, and Elphaba also didn't want to display any signs of weakness right now.

She decided to try her hand at making up a story. "He said to me that I was very powerful, but he didn't want to disturb my education here at Shiz for me to start working with him. Perhaps after I graduate, I shall return to the Emerald City and see if he still deems me worthy to do so."

Luckily, Madame Morrible bought the story. She launched into another one of her pre-written speeches about how life sometimes throws one a disappointment, and how one must be strong and move on.

"There's that word again. Strong." Elphaba thought. "So is that all you wished to speak with me about?" she asked.

"Well, not quite. I'm afraid I've heard some bad news from Nest Hardings. Your sister, Nessarose, departed for there yesterday, did she not? She went to go to your father?"

Elphaba nodded, and waited for her to continue.

"Well, I'm afraid that I've received word that your father passed away very early yesterday morning, before Nessa left."

It took a moment for Elphaba to process the information. Her father had already died? Nessa did not get to say goodbye, because of her.

"I'm deeply sorry for your loss, especially so soon after losing your mother. That is all I wanted to tell you." Madame Morrible said, tacking the fake sweetness back onto her voice. "Would you like me to call Fiyero in to take you back to your room?"

Elphaba nodded, and Madame Morrible exited the room. A few moments later, Fiyero came in, thankfully alone. "Hey, Fabala. How did it go?"

Elphaba didn't have to say anything. She turned and looked at him, and he could see that her eyes were welling up again. He lifted her out of the chair and whispered "It's alright. Let's get you back to your room and you can tell me what happened."

As Fiyero carried her to her room, she let her head fall on his shoulder. She felt her body going limp, as if her body was going to sleep but her mind was not.

They returned to Elphaba's room to find Glinda sitting on the bed, nervously twirling her hair. Fiyero didn't seem to notice her. He sat down on the bed and quickly grabbed some tissues to absorb the inevitable tears. Glinda took this as a sign that the meeting did not go well. She moved to Elphaba's bed and sat beside her. As Fiyero held the tissues under her eyes, Glinda began rubbing her friend's back.

Once the tissues were in place, Fiyero asked "So what happened? What did she say?"

Elphaba took a deep breath and said, "He's gone. He died yesterday morning."

"Oh, Elphie." Glinda said softly. She pulled Elphaba into a hug.

"And it…it's my fault."

"Fabala, how could it be your fault that he died…"

"Because I'm the one who caused him emotional stress! Nessa said that the problem wasn't physical, it was emotional, and all of his emotional problems are because of me. Because of the unwanted child. And Nessa…poor Nessa never even got to say goodbye. He was dead before she even left here. And that's my fault too; she was up here just to get me."

Elphaba took a shaky breath and said "It's all my fault."

A.N. I know, very sad. But I'm in a sad mood right now. Please review!


	17. A Way Out

Strength 

A.N. Thanks for the reviews! Unfortunately, my mood has not improved as I failed my drivers test yesterday. So bear with me if the sadness continues for this chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

"It's all my fault." Elphaba repeated her statement, her voice beginning to quiver as she spoke.

Fiyero took her face in his hands, letting the tissues drop for a moment. He turned her face towards him and said "Fabala, listen to me. _None_ of this is your fault. You did not cause Frex's death. He caused his own emotional stress by not accepting you. Anyone who wouldn't want you, as a child, as a friend, as a girlfriend, whatever, is crazy. And it was Nessa's decision to come up here to get you. As sad as it is that she didn't get to say goodbye, it was the result of her own decision. And, for the record, nothing else that has happened to us in the past few weeks is your fault. Your mother, the Wizard, your leg and arm, none of it was your fault. You are going to get better, Nessa will of course be sad but she will move on eventually, and everything will get back to normal around here."

"Well, not quite everything…did you ever find out about, you know, your position?" Glinda asked. She hated to bring this up, just as Fiyero was on the verge of calming her down, but it had to be said.

"What position?" Fiyero asked. Glinda then realized that Fiyero hadn't been there when Elphaba told her about becoming the governor.

Elphaba, her face still in Fiyero's hands, said, "Well, now that my…now that Frex is dead, I'm kind of the governor of Munchkinland."

"What? How is that possible? You're 19 years old!" Fiyero said.

"I know, I know. But there's no way out of this…"

"Oh, yes there is. It just so happens that we are friends with someone who could help. A little Munchkin boy, perhaps you remember him. His name is Boq?" Fiyero said, stressing Boq's name in hopes of Glinda actually getting it right one day.

Glinda rolled her eyes at Fiyero's sarcasm. "What could he do?"

Elphaba's eyes widened. "No, he's right. Since Boq is of legal age, he could start a petition of some sort to put someone else in office in place of me. It wouldn't be that hard, no one in Munchkinland really liked my family anyway. But I don't know if Boq would do something like that, especially for me. We aren't really close friends or anything."

"True." Fiyero said. "He may not do it for you. But he would do it for someone else…"

An hour later, the three of them had come up with a plan. Glinda stood outside Boq's room, while Elphaba and Fiyero hid around a corner. Elphaba felt a tad of guilt about being in the boys' building. Glinda, however, didn't seem to have any problem with it. Fiyero crouched down, keeping Elphaba in his arms in case the need arose for a quick getaway, and listened intently as Glinda knocked on the door. Thankfully, Boq was there. Even more so, his roommate was not.

Boq was overjoyed at seeing Glinda at his door. "Oh, Miss Glinda! What a pleasant surprise! What brings you here?"

"Well, Boq, I have a teeny, tiny favor to ask." Glinda said, turning on the "popular girl" charm.

"Of course. You know I would do anything for you. What is it?"

"Well, Boq, I'm sure you heard about Miss Nessarose and Miss Elphie's father."

"Yes, he is gravely ill."

"Oh, you didn't hear? He died the morning Nessarose left Shiz after returning for a few days. It's terrible, I know."

"Oh, that's awful. Poor Nessa." Boq said, his voice showing actual concern for Nessa for the first time.

"Well, I'm sure Nessa will be fine eventually. I'm more worried about our Elphaba."

"What about her? I heard she was hurt, how's she doing?"

"Well, she's doing well enough for the circumstances, but she cannot walk or stand so Fiyero has been her main transportation system. Anyway, she is petrified about what will become of her now that her father has died. Her father was the governor, right?"

"Yes, he was…oh, sweet Oz! That means that Elphaba is the new governor!"

"That is where I need your help. Elphaba doesn't feel equipped to take on this position. Since you are a citizen of Munchkinland, I need you to draw up a petition to keep Elphaba out of power and send it home, to circulate around."

"I don't know, that would be very…"

"Please, Boq? For me?" Glinda said, batting her eyes.

Boq suddenly began to stutter as he spoke. "Oh, well…of…of course I'll do it for _you_ Miss Glinda. I'll drop by to let you read it when it's done."

Glinda thanked Boq, adding in some more eye batting as she did so. She then quickly turned the corner and informed Fiyero, who was still holding a now sleeping Elphaba, that their plan had been a success. Well, at least the first part anyway.

They went back to Glinda and Elphaba's room and, after putting Elphaba in bed, made small talk for awhile. It was a relief, knowing something had gone right for a change. Yes, they knew that there was still much more to be done. Boq had to write the petition, and write it well for that matter. Then he would have to send it to Munchkinland, and then it would have to collect enough signatures to actually have any effect. During a break in the conversation, Glinda looked across the room to her sleeping friend. No matter if this worked or not, they were not taking her away. Not only did Glinda not want to lose her only true friend, she was also convinced that Elphaba would have a very difficult time being alone. Not that public officials were ever alone…no, she couldn't think like that. The petition would work. It had to work.

As Glinda focused on Elphaba, Fiyero did the same. He couldn't help but notice how calm she looked. After seeing the worry that was constantly in her eyes over the past few weeks, it was nice to see her look so peaceful. But underneath that peacefulness he could see something else. He could see a kind of defeat, as if Elphaba had been trying so hard to deal with all of this and her body had finally beaten her by making her fall asleep in the hallway.

Glinda shifted her gaze from Elphaba to Fiyero. She studied the intense gaze on his face, as if he was searching Elphaba's expression for something that she could not see. She stood up and excused herself from the room, sensing that Fiyero might have wanted some time alone with Elphaba.

Elphaba stirred at the sound of the door closing. She didn't wake up completely, but she blinked her eyes a few times and gave Fiyero a weak smile upon seeing him.

"Hey" was all she said.

Fiyero reached over and brushed his hand over her face. "Hey, Fabala."

Elphaba looked around the room and asked "Where's Glinda?"

"She had some things to do. She'll be back soon. Why don't you go back to sleep? Glinda told me you've been awake at night these days." Fiyero replied.

"You're going to stay here, right?" Elphaba asked.

Fiyero smiled at her and resumed stroking her face. "Of course, Fabala. I'm not going anywhere. Just relax."

Without even thinking about it, Fiyero began humming a lullaby that he had heard as a child. He was well into it before he had even realized he was doing it. He didn't stop, though, because he saw how Elphaba's face relaxed even more. He continued humming the melody until she had fallen asleep again, now looking more peaceful than before. There was no way any Munchkin tradition was going to take her from him, he decided.

"Boq, you better write a damn good petition…" he said to himself.

A.N. Aww, wasn't that sweet? I feel a little better now. Please review! Also, due to the demons known as midterms the next update might take a little bit longer…just wanted to warn you.


	18. A Breath of Fresh Air

Strength 

A.N. Thanks for the reviews.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

Fiyero sat for a while, watching Elphaba sleep. He tried several times to get up and focus on something else, but he couldn't do it. Although he knew it wasn't true, he had this feeling that if he took his eyes off of her she would be taken from him. He had to protect her, even if there was nothing to protect her from.

Glinda came back in eventually, She looked relieved to see Elphaba asleep after all of the nights she had spent awake with her. Soon after she got back, there was another knock at the door. Fiyero quickly found a hiding place inside the closet in case it was an Ama while Glinda answered the door.

Luckily, it was only Boq. "Here, Miss Glinda. I've finished the petition" he said, his voice still shaking from the nervousness that came with speaking to Glinda.

Glinda smiled, thanked him for his speed, batted her eyes a few more times, and then bid him goodbye. The last thing she needed to deal with right now was a hopeless suitor like Boq.

"Well, let's hear it." Fiyero said. "How did Boq do?"

"Let's see…it says, "_Fellow Munchkins, as you are most likely already aware of, our Governor Thropp passed away on November 28th. His daughter, Elphaba Thropp, is next in line for the position. Elphaba, smart and capable as she may be, is only 19 years old and is in no way prepared to take on a position such as this. This petition is being circulated throughout Munchkinland in order to have a more qualified leader put in place.""_

Glinda stopped reading when she heard Elphaba stir in her sleep. She leaned over and whispered to Fiyero, "Do you think this will work?" Glinda knew next to nothing about petitions, so she couldn't tell if Boq had done a good job or not.

"Yes, I'm sure of it. It sounds very formal. I don't know much about Munchkins, but I do know one thing." Fiyero said.

"And what would that be?" Glinda asked.

"Well, if Boq is any indication, Munchkins are easily swayed by a smooth talker."

Glinda then went to bring the petition back to Boq so that he could send it back to Munchkinland. Fiyero remained with Elphaba. He knew he could get into a lot of trouble for being in the girl's building for so long, but he didn't care. He didn't even want to think about what his roommate must have been thinking about him by this point. It didn't really matter. It was funny. All of his life Fiyero had been telling himself that nothing mattered. Anything that happened could be brushed off easily. It was different now. Things that happened to him could still be brushed off as easily as ever, but even the slightest thing going wrong for Elphaba brought his whole world down.

"….Yero?"

Fiyero jumped slightly at the sound of her voice. He had expected her to sleep for much longer. She didn't appear tired, though. "Hi, Elphie. Did you have a nice nap?" he said.

"Yeah, I guess. So did Boq agree to write the petition?"

Fiyero nodded. "I think our plan is working."

Elphaba smiled at the idea that something was actually going right. She sat up in bed and asked Fiyero "So…what do you want for Lurlinemas?"

At first Fiyero found the question rather odd. "Um…I haven't given it much thought to be perfectly honest. I thought you said that you didn't celebrate it."

Elphaba shook her head. "I said that I'd never received any presents for it. My parents always spent all their extra money on gifts for Nessa. They told me that the rest of us had to make sacrifices so that Nessa would be happy."

It was beyond Fiyero's comprehension how Elphaba could have grown up like that and still not resent Nessarose for any of it. "Well, this year is going to be different. This is going to be your best Lurlinemas yet."

"As long as this plan holds up I don't doubt you there." Elphaba grabbed her legs and rested her chin on her knees.

"Something wrong?" Fiyero asked.

"Not really…I'm just kind of bored. This is the first time in a while that I haven't felt scared or sad or just mentally drained. I forgot what it felt like to just feel normal. It's actually kind of nice."

There was a short silence, and then Fiyero turned the conversation back to the approaching holiday. "Is there anything special you would like for Lurlinemas? It's a lot of pressure on me, you know."

"Why?"

"Well, if you never got any other presents before, this would be your first Lurlinemas gift. And I have to make it good. I want to make sure I get you something you really like."

"While that's very sweet, it's not entirely true. I did receive one Lurlinemas gift; the year before Nessa was born." Elphaba reached inside her pillowcase and hesitated a bit before pulling out a very raggedy old stuffed animal of some sort. Fiyero couldn't determine what sort of animal it had once been. He looked at it inquiringly and hoped that Elphaba would fill in the blanks.

Fortunately, she was able to read his facial expression. "It used to be a dog, I think. Either a dog or a rabbit. When I was little I always called it bunny."

Fiyero moved closer to get a better look. Upon closer inspection, he could see that "bunny's" fur was a very faded, but very real, shade of green. "Was it always that color? You don't see very many green stuffed dogs or rabbits."

"Well, you don't see very many green people either, but here I am. No, he wasn't always this color. When I first started school, it felt awkward to be without someone or something to care for. Even by that point I was used to caring for Nessa. So I brought this to school with me. One day one of the boys in my class decided that me and my toy should match, so he grabbed it from me and shoved it in some green paint." Elphaba said this without much emotion, but it was clear to Fiyero that this, like the many other moments of taunting in her life, hurt more than she let on.

She looked down and shook her head. "Fiyero, I'm sorry. I know you probably don't need to hear me talk about all of this."

"Actually, I'm quite intrigued. So how old were you when you got that?"

"About, well, maybe a year at most. Nessa was born when I was a year and a half, so it had to be when I was one. I was born in November, so I don't think I'd remember getting it if they had given it to me when I was less than a month old."

"Your birthday was this month? When? Why didn't I…"

"Yeah, it was back at the beginning of the month. The 5th. And you didn't know because we weren't dating and I hadn't bothered to tell anyone at Shiz what my birthday is. Glinda didn't even know. It doesn't matter, no one really makes a big deal out of my birthday. I've never had a real party or anything."

"Well, that is because you haven't spent a birthday with me, the party master! Now, while you're at it, do you have any other childhood events that didn't go well? Any other celebrations you've never experienced? Let's see…what happened when you lost your first tooth?" Fiyero quickly came up with the first childhood milestone that popped into his head.

"My parents sighed with relief." Elphaba said, half jokingly.

About half an hour later, with Elphaba happily reading in bed, Fiyero pulled Glinda,who had since returned to the room, into the hallway.

"We have some work to do" he said.

"What for?"

"You have to help me plan a birthday party for Elphie."

"It's her birthday? In the middle of all this?" Glinda couldn't imagine having her birthday amidst all of the events that had occurred in Elphaba's life.

"No, it was on the 5th but she didn't tell anyone. So we're just going to have her party a little bit later. Wait, maybe we shouldn't be doing this in the hallway…"

Fiyero stuck his head in the door and told Elphaba that he and Glinda were going to get food. When she accepted his reason for leaving, he and Glinda hurried down to the common area, but eating was not on the agenda.

A.N. So…anyone know how to celebrate an Ozian birthday? Please review.


	19. Happy Birthday Elphie

Strength 

A.N. Thanks for the reviews.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

Ten minutes later, Fiyero sat with Glinda in one of the many on-campus cafes. It was not terribly crowded, which Glinda was thankful for. She really hoped she wouldn't run into any of her old "friends".

They found a table in a back corner and got to work. They decided that they should surprise Elphaba with the party, seeing as how she probably wouldn't want to go if they told her in advance.

"So when should we have it?" Glinda asked.

"Well, I was thinking this Saturday, the first of December."

"Two days? Fiyero, we can't plan a party in two days! I certainly can't, anyway."

"Yes, but I'm the party master, remember? You people didn't even know _how_ to have a party until I…"

"Yes, yes. I know. And if you think we can have this all planned out by then, then by all means let's do it. Now, who else should we invite? Will Nessa be back by then?"

"Oh, I forgot about Nessa. You know, even if she's not, I think we can do this party without her. Something tells me that when she does get back, she's not going to be in a party mood for a while. Now, that would make the guest list you, me, and Boq."

"Wow, what a bash." Glinda said sarcastically.

"It doesn't matter. The point is not how many people are there. It's that the ones who are truly care about Elphie. This does pose a bit of a problem, though."

"What?"

"Well, first of all, where are we going to do this? We can't do it in your room, because me and Boq technically can't go up there. Same thing with my room. You girls can't go up there. And also, how are we going to set up the party and keep it a secret? One of us has to stay with Elphaba. Since you live with her, you would obviously be with her, but then you wouldn't be able to carry her to the party."

Glinda thought for a moment, and said, "Ok, I think I solved the whole thing. You must be rubbing off on me, party master. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to have the party outside, in the early afternoon. The building right next to ours is practically empty on Saturdays-all the girls live nearby and they go home on the weekends. There's a patch of grass in between the buildings that would be perfect. And as far as setting up, here's what I'm thinking. At about 10:45 that morning, you come over. You come over every day so it won't look that strange to her. I'm going to leave at about 11, and go get Boq. We'll go down to the area and get everything set up. At 12:45, you bring Elphaba down. We'll have lunch out there."

Fiyero was silent for a moment, amazed that Glinda of all people came up with the perfect plan. "Yeah…that sounds good. Ok, you go tell Boq, he'll do anything you ask him to. I'm going to go check on Elphie. And when you get back I'll go out and buy decorations. Tomorrow we're going to have to do the gift shopping, we'll go in shifts I guess."

As an afterthought, Fiyero purchased a muffin to bring back to Elphaba. He had told her they were getting food, after all. He then went back up to her room, thankful for the ease with which he could sneak into the girl's building. When he got to the room he found Elphaba exactly where he had left her; reading on the bed.

Amazingly, both Fiyero and Glinda were able to keep their party a secret for the next day and a half. Elphaba could sense that something was going on, but she wasn't sure what it was. Fiyero showed up at the girl's room at exactly 10:45 on Saturday. Once Glinda had left at 11, he began to go through his usual routine of getting Elphaba dressed. Elphaba was still not accepting of this by any means. The two of them still had an argument every day about whether or not Elphaba could dress herself. It was part of the routine. After Fiyero had once again won the argument, he spent more time looking through Elphaba's closet than usual. Everything looked the same, but he managed to find the one dress that was slightly different from the rest. He wanted her to look special today. "Maybe I should have let Glinda handle this part." Fiyero thought to himself as he got Elphaba dressed. As he watched her brush her hair, he couldn't stop smiling at her. He had to turn his head away a few times so she wouldn't get suspicious of anything.

The two made small talk for the remaining half an hour before Fiyero had to bring her to the party. Elphaba noticed something was strange about Fiyero. He seemed to have something else on his mind.

At about 12:35 he said "Elphie, let's go outside. You look like you could use some fresh air." Normally Elphaba would have protested, but she did not because if she went with him, maybe he would tell her what was bothering him.

Fiyero carried her out of the building and in a direction she had never gone before. As he walked, he spoke to her but he kept speaking more loudly every few feet.

Meanwhile, Glinda and Boq had set up a pretty nice looking party area. Boq was thrilled at getting to work with Glinda for and hour and a half, and Glinda had actually began to see some redeeming qualities in Boq. The two of them were finishing hanging up the banner (a difficult task for the two vertically challenged decorators) when they heard Fiyero's voice around the corner. They quickly ran behind the one tree in the small lot.

Before they rounded the corner, Fiyero directed Elphaba to close her eyes. When she refused, he simply put his hand over her eyes and continued around the corner. Elphaba couldn't do much physically to fight this off.

"Fiyero! What are you doing? Take your hand off of my…eyes. What is this?" Fiyero had taken his hand off of Elphaba's eyes, and she looked around at the decorated courtyard. There was a blanket on the ground by the tree with bags of snacks and lunch for everyone. There were balloons everywhere in every imaginable color. And on one of the walls was a banner that read "Happy Birthday Elphie!"

"Well, Glinda and I decided that we couldn't let your birthday go uncelebrated. So we threw you a party. What do you think?"

Had Elphaba's arms not already been wrapped around Fiyero's neck, as she always held them when he carried her, she would have thrown them around him now. "It's…it's beautiful, Yero! I love you. Thank you so much."

Fiyero put Elphaba down on the blanket and the others sat down around her. They ate lunch and even had cake, which Glinda had purchased from a nearby store. Had she made the cake herself "it wouldn't be a very happy birthday" she explained.

Once they had eaten, Fiyero got up and ran behind the tree. When he returned he was holding three brightly wrapped boxes-Elphaba's presents.

Elphaba had to stop before opening them to savor the moment. This was the first time she could ever remember receiving birthday presents. In her family, the day of her birth was not something to be celebrated. Slowly, she opened the boxes. As Fiyero watched her, he noticed her cautiousness. It was as if she didn't know how.

Boq had given her a necklace, and Glinda had purchased a dress for her that she was ordered to wear for Lurlinemas. The dress was black, but a much more fashionable black than what Elphaba was used to. It was detailed using a very fine gold thread. It was thick enough to show, but not thick enough to cause damage to one's eyesight. Even Elphaba had to admit, she kind of liked it.

Fiyero's present was the last one in the pile. Elphaba opened it even more slowly than she had opened the others. Taking the lid off the box, she removed an emerald green stuffed bear, wearing a locket around its neck.

"I just figured that since your first Lurlinemas present was a stuffed animal, your first birthday present should be one too." Fiyero explained.

Elphaba stared at the bear for a moment and began fingering the locket. The inscription on the front read "My Fabala". On the inside, a second inscription read "Elphie, remember that I'll always love you. Fiyero."

Had Elphaba been able to stand up, she would have leaped up and hugged Fiyero. Instead, she signaled to him by extending her good arm and he knelt down so she could embrace him.

The party lasted for about an hour more, until a sudden snow squall drove them back inside. Actually, it was much more than a squall. By the time everyone was back inside, the snow had already began to accumulate on the ground. Elphaba, sitting in a chair by the window for once instead of in her bed, watched the snow build up on the roads outside. She had always loved to watch snow, from a safe distance indoors, that is. Rain had always scared her a little bit, but snow always seemed safer to her. Maybe it was because snow was quieter than rain.

Glinda sat down in another chair next to her, and Fiyero stood behind both of them. They all watched the snow for a few minutes, as if watching the ground slowly turn white was the best entertainment they had.

After a few minutes, Fiyero said "I better get back to my building before this gets too bad. It looks like it could be a big storm. Would you like me to put you to bed before I go?"

If he had asked her this a week ago, Elphaba would have said yes. But tonight, she smiled and said "No, just lift me onto the bed. I can manage the rest by myself later."

"Really? You can get your clothes changed and everything?" Fiyero asked, knowing what the answer would be.

"Well, no. But I'm sure Glinda is more than capable of assisting in that department."

"Yes, Fiyero. I can assure you that I am. Besides, we haven't spent much girl time together in the past few weeks. Go ahead. She'll be fine." Glinda said. She was getting very excited at the prospect of having an evening alone with her friend. Not that she wasn't completely happy for her and Fiyero. She was, and she thought they were adorable together. But there are certain things that can only be discussed among female friends. Plus, Glinda had begun to feel a little awkward being there every night as Fiyero took care of Elphaba.

Fiyero looked from one roommate to the other. He was still a little hesitant to leave Elphaba. But when he saw the smile on her face, something told him she would be alright.

A.N. Well, midterms are over and I just survived the blizzard of 2005, hence the snowstorm. I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can. Please review.


	20. Snowed In

Strength 

A.N. Thanks for the reviews.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

Once Fiyero had left the room, Glinda sighed and leaned back in her chair. "So, did you have a good time today? Come on, admit it."

Elphaba smiled and said, "Yeah, I did. Thanks."

"Well, it was Fiyero who threw the whole thing together. He really loves you, Elphie."

"Yeah, I know." Elphaba's smile faded a little bit as she looked at Glinda. "Hey, Glinda, I'm sorry if I've, well, if we've been making you feel uncomfortable with us being together so much. I know I would feel a little awkward if he had to take care of you this way."

How Elphaba was always able to read her feelings was something that Glinda never quite understood. "It's alright, Elphie. If he doesn't carry you around, how else are you going to get anywhere? I mean, I could _try_ to carry you but that could be dangerous to both of us."

Elphaba laughed at this, but this time it wasn't the fake laugh that she put on to make everyone around her believe she was ok. "I missed being able to laugh with you like this. So what do you want to do?"

"You're not tired? Normally by this time you're either asleep already or at least partially there."

"No, I guess being alone with you gives me extra energy."

Glinda thought for a moment, and then leapt up from her chair. "I know! I can give you a makeover!"

"Again? Glinda, we've done this already, remember?"

Glinda looked up from the various tools she was collecting. "Yes, but it didn't last. Come on, we need to impress Fiyero. We need to show him that I can take care of you just as well as he can."

"From what I remember, the first time you "Galinda-fied" me he said something to the effect of "You don't have to do that." But if you really think it's nessecary…"

"Well, maybe _Ga_linda-fying you isn't, but Glinda-fying you is! This is completely new."

"And the difference would be…"

Glinda paused for a moment. "I'm not sure. I haven't decided yet. This is the first Glinda makeover I've done." She pulled Elphaba's chair closer to her bed, so that she could sit on her bed while she worked. "Now, let's see. Last time I did this I left your hair down…maybe this time I should do something a little different."

Glinda worked on Elphaba's hair alone for what seemed like an eternity to Elphaba. Once the hair was done, she still wouldn't allow Elphaba to see her progress. "I only reveal my completed work" she said. She then moved on to clothing, remembering that makeup didn't do much for Elphaba's skin tone. "Let's see…honestly, Elphie. I don't see why you can't wear something with a little more…color. Or at least own something with a little more color."

"I do. It's called my skin." Elphaba replied. "How much more color do you want me to have?"

Glinda had given up on Elphaba's closet and moved on to her own. She cursed herself for being so short. Nothing in there would fit her. Except…yes, that might work. Glinda reached into the back of the closet and pulled out a pair of jeans. They had been given to her as a gift from a distant relative, but apparently the relative was too distant to know of Glinda's height. They had always been much too long on her, but she kept them with intentions of getting them hemmed. She judged that they would most likely fit Elphaba. She went back into her closet and pulled out a pink and white sweater that had also always been too big on her. "OK, I found you an outfit" she said to Elphaba, holding the clothes behind her back. "But you have to close your eyes while I do this."

"You want me to close my eyes as you undress me? Glinda, that just sounds wrong on so many levels…"

"Just do it, Elphie."

Elphaba closed her eyes, and allowed Glinda to complete her "project". It took Glinda longer to dress her than it did for Fiyero, but she chalked that up to the fact that Glinda had not had much practice at this.

"OK, you're done. Open your eyes." Glinda turned Elphaba's chair so that it faced her mirror.

The last time Glinda had made over Elphaba, she had run away upon seeing the results. This time, she could not run away. She stared at herself intently. Somehow, Glinda had managed to get her cast through the leg opening of the pants, and it was barely even visible. She looked almost normal. Her hair, although mostly left down, now had a thin braid down one side, rather reminiscent of the hairstyle Elphaba had had when she first met Glinda.

"Well, what do you think?" Glinda asked.

"I'm not sure…It's not bad, but it just doesn't look like me…I look so normal."

"Well, that's a better reaction than I got last time. Just try it out for a day or so…we have to show Fiyero." This Elphaba agreed with. The two then started to make small talk with each other, but there wasn't much to discuss. Elphaba hadn't been alone since returning from the Emerald City, and Glinda had only been alone for short increments of time. Still, the two managed to make each other laugh.

Around five in the evening, just as it was beginning to get dark, Elphaba strained to look out the window. "Glinda, is it still snowing?" she asked.

Glinda stood and went to the window. "Yup, and pretty hard too. Won't be surprised if they issue an emergency order for everyone to stay inside."

"Can they do that?" Elphaba had never heard of such an order.

"Oh, sure. They don't want people suing the university for injuries caused by traveling from building to building in the snow. Don't worry, I'm sure Fiyero's been home for hours already. It's a good thing he left when he did. If they issue an order they send an Ama around to all of the rooms to…"

As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Glinda opened it and saw not one of the Amas in the doorway, but Madame Morrible herself. Elphaba saw her too, and suddenly felt an urge to hide somewhere.

"Hello, girls. Sorry to disturb you, but I thought I should inform you that the storm outside is going to get worse before it gets better, so we are requesting that all students stay where they are for the duration. At the very worst, we should have the walkways cleared and everything back in order by this time tomorrow.

Glinda didn't want Madame Morrible to stay any longer than she had to, so she didn't say much in response. Luckily, it seemed that Madame Morrible was responsible for informing all the girls in the building. She left quickly without a word to Elphaba, which is exactly how Elphaba wanted it.

"Wow…we could be stuck in here for 24 hours."

Elphaba glanced at the clock. It was now ten after five. She suddenly felt a pang of worry, although she couldn't quite place its source.

Glinda sat down on the bed behind the chair and put her arms around Elphaba's shoulders. "It's ok, Elphie. We're going to be fine, even without Fiyero here." Elphaba realized that Glinda had found the reason for her worry, which had apparently shown itself in her face. This was the first time she had been separated from Fiyero for this long when she wasn't asleep since they started dating. She knew that there was nothing for her to be afraid of and that Glinda would be there the entire night, but she still felt a little apprehensive at the thought of spending that amount of time without him.

Fortunately, being with Glinda didn't allow much time for dwelling on such feelings. She had soon enough changed the subject by saying "I love snow, don't you? It's so pretty, especially at night."

"Yeah, I guess so. It's nice if I'm inside, that is." Elphaba replied.

"Oh, yeah. That's right. The water thing. So…that means you've never been able to touch snow, right?"

Elphaba shook her head. "I did once, when I was about four. I saw the other kids having a snowball fight, and someone threw one at me so I grabbed some snow to fight back. It doesn't snow too often in Munchkinland; or maybe we were wandering at that point, I don't remember. Either way, it was the first time I had seen snow."

"Oh, you know what would be perfect to do tonight?" Glinda asked, her old bubbly self coming through. "Let's decorate for Lurlinemas!!!"

"Umm, ok." Elphaba didn't really have much protest for Glinda decorating, though she didn't know how much help she would be. Glinda went over to her closet and took down two boxes from the top shelf. She put one box on the floor by Elphaba's feet. "Here, these are the lights. You untangle these while I get our tree set up."

Once again, Elphaba had no protest so she dove into the mass of tangled wire inside the box. She had managed to separate one strand when Glinda announced that the tree was up and she was ready for the lights.

"Elphie, that's all you've done? You're supposed to be the smart one, remember?" Glinda said jokingly as she took the one free strand over to the miniature tree.

The rest of the decorating took about three and a half hours, thanks in no small part to Elphaba's struggle with the lights. When it was completed, it actually looked very nice. Around 8:45, Elphaba let out a yawn, a little louder than she meant to.

"I guess my energy powers are starting to run out, huh?" Glinda asked. "Do you want me to put you in bed now?"

Elphaba truly wanted to say no. She was actually having a great time with her roommate. But her body wouldn't let her.

Glinda didn't bother changing Elphaba out of her "Glinda-fied" outfit. It proved to be enough of a struggle getting her into the bed. Elphaba actually did most of the job herself, leaning on Glinda for support on the right side.

Once Elphaba was in bed, she directed her attention to the decorations around the room. At first it was just a way to avert her eyes from Glinda getting ready for bed across the room, but the more she looked at them the nicer they looked to her. She had never seen as many decorations in her whole house growing up as she was now seeing in this small room.

Glinda got into her bed, whispered goodnight to Elphaba, and turned off the light. Elphaba held the green bear close to her and fell asleep, doing so without fear or worry for the first time in almost a month.

A.N. Wow, that was a long one! Please review!


	21. On the Road Again

Strength

A.N. Thanks for the reviews.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters

Over the next five days, the smile never left Elphaba's face. Of course, that was true for almost everyone at Shiz. The freshly fallen snow had put everyone in a good mood. After the walkways were cleared, everything seemed to instantly decorate itself for the holidays. And for the first time, Elphaba actually enjoyed it all.

One morning Elphaba actually woke up before Glinda, something she always hoped wouldn't happen. There were only three major problems with having a broken leg and arm. The first was the inability to stand or walk. The second was the inability to get dressed on her own. And the third, which she hated most of all, was the inability to get out of her own bed. She hated lying there, just waiting for someone to come along and help her get up. She felt completely helpless, and she didn't like that feeling at all. Normally Fiyero was there when she woke up, and he could just lift her out of bed. But this morning he was later than usual, so she was stuck. Unless…

Elphaba began looking around the room for some way she could get herself out of bed. She didn't want to wake Glinda and make her help because that would only intensify the helpless feeling she had. She spotted the chair she had been sitting in the night before, and decided to take matters into her own hands.

She used her teeth to undo the sling, freeing her broken arm. She then clasped both hands onto the back of the chair, but quickly saw that that plan would only end up with her sitting in the chair backwards. She was going to have to back herself into the chair. She managed to move the chair by pushing it with her foot, lining it up with where she was sitting on the bed. She pushed the chair as close to the bed as it would get, and began to ease back until she was sitting on the chair, with her legs still resting on the bed. Using her good leg, she applied pressure to the side of the bed, pushing the chair back. She smiled at her accomplishment.

Meanwhile, the noise of Elphaba pushing the chair around had woken up Glinda, who was very surprised to see Elphaba sitting in a chair in the middle of the room.

"Elphie? How did you get in the…"

"Glinda, I'm perfectly capable of getting myself into a chair."

Before Glinda could respond, there was a knock at the door. Glinda opened it to reveal Fiyero, who was holding the girls' mail.

"Morning, girls. I took the liberty of picking up your mail on the way up here" he said, handing the mail to Glinda. He then focused his attention to Elphaba. "Glinda moved you into a chair? How did she manage that?"

"She didn't. I moved myself." Elphaba replied.

"Don't look at me, I don't know how she did it either. Hey, look Elphie! A letter from Nessa." Glinda said. She handed Elphaba a slightly worn envelope. This had defiantly come from Nest Hardings. Elphaba opened up the letter and, to avoid having to repeat what it said, read it out loud to Glinda and Fiyero.

Dear Elphaba 

_I'm sure that by now you have heard that Father passed away before I could reach him. Although my journey back to Shiz to get you was the cause of this, I do not blame you for it. It was my choice to go back and get you, even though I knew deep down you wouldn't come. _

_ There is something going on here that has been troubling me, however. You know very well that you were next in line to be the next governor of Munchkinland. There is now a petition circulating around Munchkinland saying that you are too young and too inexperienced for the job. Elphaba, I had to tell you about this. I have tried to convince the Munchkins otherwise, but they all agree with the petition. You must come home and defend your position. _

_Nessa_

Elphaba looked up from the letter. She looked down at her leg, then back at her friends. "Well, it looks like I'm on the road again" she said.

"What? You're actually going to go and defend your position? Elphie, why would you go back there? Our plan is working" said Fiyero.

"Right now, yes. I'm not going back to defend my position. I'm going back to convince Nessa that she should stop protesting this. I don't think she's coming back here anytime soon and we can't let her keep trying to convince the Munchkins to let me be their leader. She's very charismatic when she wants to be and it's only a matter of time before she gets them to agree with her."

"Elphie, are you sure you want to travel right now?" Fiyero wasn't thrilled at the idea of Elphaba traveling in her condition. He didn't mind accompanying her there, of course. But he was concerned for her safety.

"Why not? It's the perfect timing. We end classes for holiday break tomorrow, so we'll just go right after we finish class. It won't take more than a few days, and we'll be back before classes start up again. We won't miss anything."

Both Fiyero and Glinda could see that there was no stopping Elphaba in this one. So they reluctantly agreed to come with her on what would be her third journey in a month.

The next day, the classes at Shiz consisted of what classes at any school consist of the day before a holiday break. There were refreshments, discussions of holiday plans, and a general feeling of the year being halfway over. Glinda found herself surrounded by her former "friends" and unable to escape, while Fiyero and Elphaba stayed off to the side, by themselves.

When classes were over for the day, Elphaba led Fiyero and Glinda (well, actually she could only verbally direct them) in getting packed and getting a cab. The travelers were on the road by 5:00, just as it was beginning to get dark. Having made the journey before, Elphaba knew that they would be stopping at an inn within the next 3 to 4 hours, so she resisted the urge to fall asleep. However, this driver didn't stop at any inn. Apparently his shift had only started at 4:45 and driving all night was not a problem for him. Although sleeping in a cab was not the most comfortable situation, all three of them knew that this meant they would be arriving sooner and therefore could leave sooner. Elphaba eventually nodded off on Fiyero's shoulder. Before falling asleep himself, he moved her onto his lap. He fell asleep with her in his arms, as if he was afraid to let go.

A.N. Ok, that took longer than I expected. I had a busy week last week so the only time I could find to write this was during my chemistry class. I'll try to have the next chapter up faster.


	22. Shattered Glass

Strength 

A.N. Thanks for the reviews. I received a request for some romance. Well, let me see what I can do…

They arrived in Nest Hardings around seven the next morning. Although Elphaba had protested it at first, they decided to go directly to the governor's mansion. They knew that they would have the best chance of finding Nessa there. Sure enough, she was sitting on the porch when they pulled up. As soon as she saw the three of them exit the cab, she wheeled herself off of the porch (long ago rebuilt to accommodate Nessa's wheelchair) and down the front path.

"Oh, Elphaba! I knew you'd come back!" she exclaimed.

As Nessa proceeded to repeat the entire situation, it occurred to Elphaba that Nessa was the first person, outside of the Shiz faculty, who hadn't called her "Elphie" or "Fabala" in quite some time.

"Nessa," Elphaba said, holding up her good hand to stop her. "I know what's going on. I need to talk to you. Let's go inside so Fiyero doesn't have to stand here holding me."

Although it was no strain on Fiyero to hold Elphaba, he nodded in agreement. He could sense that Elphaba felt uncomfortable being seen outdoors here, especially in the condition that she was in.

The interior of the house seemed brighter since the last time they had been there. Elphaba was surprised to see no servants or attendants around, meaning that Nessa had been taking care of herself for the time she had been there.

"So what did you want to talk to me about, Elphaba?" Nessa asked once they were all seated on the couch.

Elphaba looked at her sister's face. She couldn't believe what she was about to tell her. "Look, Nessa, I wanted to talk to you about this petition."

"Oh, I know. Isn't it awful? But don't worry, we'll get it straightened out if we just…"

"No, Nessa. The thing is, I started it."

Nessa was silent for a moment before asking "What?"

"Well, technically Boq started it, but we gave him the idea. I just don't think I'm the right person to rule Munchkinland right now, Nessa. I'm only 19 and I've had no experience."

"But Elphaba, it's your birth right! Who will be the governor if you step down?"

"Well, I was thinking you. You're 18, and our father always wanted you to be his successor anyway. I'm sure you'd do a better job than I could."

Nessa took this with a little more hostility than Elphaba had expected. "Well, you can be assured that I will take on the job, Elphaba. I will not abandon my family position as you have done. It's no wonder that Father was so frustrated with you! Now, since I am the new governor I guess that would make this my house, so I would appreciate it if you all would leave. I have a lot of work to do. Goodbye, Elphaba."

Elphaba said nothing as Fiyero carried her out of the house, with Glinda following them. She remained silent until they had found a small hotel and had rented a room. Although it was against her better judgment, Glinda allowed Fiyero and Elphaba to share the same room.

There was an awkward silence for a few minutes. Eventually, Elphaba sighed and said "She's gone. I've lost her."

"Fabala, what do you mean?"

"I've lost her, Fiyero. My little sister. I've lost her forever."

Fiyero sat down next to Elphaba on the bed. "You didn't lose her, Elphie. She'll forgive you."

Elphaba shook her head. "It's not just that. Did you notice that she was all alone in that house? She doesn't need me anymore."

Fiyero nodded. "She certainly has changed through all of this."

"She's independent, she's forceful, she's strong…everything I've lost."

Fiyero leaned over and kissed Elphaba. "Elphie, how many times am I going to have to tell you? You didn't lose anything. In fact, I would say that you've gained quite a bit."

"Yero, you're so sweet. But let's face it. That just isn't true. I'm a different person than I was before all of this started."

Fiyero put his arm around Elphaba's shoulder and she leaned her head on his chest. "Well, who said that was a bad thing? I actually like this Elphie better." Seeing Elphaba's confused expression, he continued. "Before all of this, you were sweet, caring, compassionate…"

"And I'm not anymore?"

"No, you are. But before, we couldn't see those things. You were hidden behind this mask of only being sarcastic and strong. I like seeing all of you, Elphie." He kissed her again, a little more forcefully this time.

Elphaba didn't respond, at least not verbally. The two of them kissed for quite awhile, enjoying the romance that had been all but forgotten in the midst of everything else going on.

Eventually, they tired and Elphaba once again leaned back on Fiyero's chest. She was enjoying the comfort and security that she found in his arms. Everything was peaceful, everything was serene.

The serenity didn't last, though. After a few minutes, Elphaba thought she heard voices in the distance. She shrugged it off, thinking it had only been a passing townsperson or the wind.

She was wrong. Both she and Fiyero heard the sound of shattering glass, and Glinda yelping in the next room. Before they had a chance to respond, the window directly above them had shattered as well, the glass flying to all corners of the room. Thankfully, the rooms were conjoined so Fiyero didn't have to let Elphaba out of his sight for more than a few seconds as he went into the other room and surveyed the situation. He led Glinda into their room. She was crying, and holding her arm. Her hand did little to stop it from bleeding, though.

It was at this moment that Elphaba realized what had happened. As she looked across the room, she saw the mark that confirmed her theory. In the wall across from the bed was one single bullet hole.

They had been the victims of armed rebels. Since Elphaba and Fiyero had been on the bed, the bullet shot through their window had gone right over their heads and into the wall. Glinda, however, was not so lucky. Fiyero lifted Glinda onto the bed, placing her as close to Elphaba as he could. He got his first aid kit and began working on Glinda's arm. Elphaba tried to help as much as she could, but eventually her job became simply to keep Glinda calm.

"It's ok, Glinda. You're going to be fine. Trust me."

As she stroked Glinda's shoulder with her good arm, she saw a drop of blood land on her wrist. "That's odd…" she thought. She realized that the blood had come from her own face, most likely the result of the broken glass flying everywhere.

Fiyero looked up for a moment and saw this. "Great…more blood" he said.

"Don't worry about me, Yero. We have to get her to the hospital. Putting oil on my burned skin is one thing, but this is quite another."

"I know, Elphie. I'm just trying to figure out how I can get both of you there. Neither of you can walk there."

As Fiyero struggled to figure out a plan, Elphaba watched Glinda's eyes. They were staring blankly up at the ceiling, a look Elphaba remembered all too well from the night she was injured. She sensed that Glinda was going to pass out, so she tried to get her attention and keep her awake. Elphaba may not have been trained in what to do with a gunshot wound, but she did know that in situations like this the patient should be kept alert.

"Glinda? Glinda, look at me, sweetie. You're going to be fine. Does your arm hurt?" It was an obvious answer, but at least it was something Glinda could respond to.

Meanwhile, Fiyero had come up with a plan. "Elphie, you grew up here. How far is the nearest hospital?"

"It can't be more than a block or two away. This is the main part of Nest Hardings. Hotels, stores, hospitals, they're all lumped together within a few blocks."

"That's good, because this is going to be tricky." Fiyero said as he lifted Elphaba in one arm, and Glinda in the other. Thankfully, they were both small.

The next few hours were a blur to all of them. Glinda passed out when they arrived at the hospital, despite Elphaba's best attempts at keeping her awake. Elphaba was taken by a doctor as well to treat the cut on her forehead. She ended up with stitches and with a burn from the doctor attempting to wash off the blood from her face with water, and was then returned to Fiyero's arms in the waiting room to wait for Glinda.

A.N. Well, that was exciting, wasn't it? And now I get to be evil and put a cliffhanger (does evil laugh). I'll be fast, I promise. Please review!


	23. Realizations

Strength 

A.N. Thanks for the reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters

The next four hours passed slowly for Fiyero and Elphaba. Eventually, Fiyero took to pacing around the small waiting room. Elphaba wished that she could join him, just so that she could be doing something.

After a few minutes, Elphaba broke the tense silence that had filled the room. "Fiyero, I'm sorry."

Fiyero stopped pacing and sat next to her on the couch. "Elphie, what are you sorry about? None of this is your fault. You know that."

"No, I know that we ours were the only two rooms that got shot into tonight. Let's face it, whoever did this was most likely looking for me. I should never have come back here. Too many people hate me. I'm sorry I put you and Glinda in danger."

It hadn't occurred to Fiyero that they might have been specific targets. He remembered carrying Elphaba around Nest Hardings earlier that day, and how she had been the recipient of many cruel looks.

It dawned on Fiyero that the petition that was supposed to make everything better had actually made things worse.

He pulled Elphaba closer to him and said, "Listen, Elphie. Even if they were looking for you, that doesn't make it your fault that it happened. Glinda's injury wasn't that bad, and we'll be out of here soon. And then you never have to come back again."

Elphaba was about to respond when the doctor entered the room. He gave Elphaba a look that made Fiyero want to punch him, and then turned his attention to Fiyero.

"She's going to be fine, but she should go easy on that arm for awhile. She's just down the hall. You can go see her and take her home now."

Fiyero decided not to punch the doctor. That was all they needed, to have more people mad at them in this town. He lifted Elphaba off the couch, holding her more tightly than usual, protecting her.

Both Fiyero and Elphaba breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Glinda awake and alert. Her arm was bandaged and in a sling, and that was about all that was wrong with her.

"Please tell me you can walk." Fiyero said to her.

"Yes, of course. Why?" It seemed like an odd thing for someone to ask Glinda if she could walk right after she'd been shot in the arm. A question such as "Are you ok?" seemed to be more in order.

"That's good, because let me tell you, carrying the two of you here at the same time was near impossible."

Elphaba felt terrible at that moment. Her best friend had just gotten shot, and she was being forced to walk because of her. Luckily, Glinda really did seem alright.

Dusk was just beginning to fall as they left the hospital and hired a cab to take them back to Shiz. As the cab drove away, Elphaba looked back at the sunset, one of the most beautiful she had ever seen.

"Oh, sure. Now the place looks nice" she thought to herself.

As the cab got closer and closer to Shiz, the mood in the cab became lighter and lighter. Fiyero joked about how he now had two injured girls to take care of, and that he might have to hire Boq as an assistant. Elphaba reminded everyone that the cast on her arm would be off in just five days, and the cast on her leg a little more than a week later. Eventually, sleep deprivation and, in Glinda's case, pain-killers caught up with them and they all drifted off to sleep.

They woke up just in time to see Shiz looming over the horizon. As the cab pulled up to the curb by the front gate, Fiyero announced that he had a request.

"Now, I want us all to swear that we will not go on another journey for the rest of this school year. I think we've all had more than our fair share of traveling in the past few weeks."

"Fiyero, you know you're just saying that because you're afraid that if we do travel again you'll be the one to get hurt."

The three of them settled back into their normal routine very quickly. Of course, there wasn't much of a routine to settle into with it being holiday break. They spent most of their time in Elphaba and Glinda's room, laughing at memories from before any of this started. Everything seemed alright, for once.

Elphie, however, knew that everything was not alright. There was something wrong with Glinda; she had been having problem's sleeping. On their fourth night back, when Elphaba once again awoke to Glinda's whimpering across the room, she decided she should do something.

"Glinda, honey? Are you ok?" she said from across the room. Had she been able to walk she would have gone over to Glinda's bed.

In the darkness, she could see Glinda sit up a bit and turn her head towards her. "Yeah…yeah, I'm fine. Go back to sleep, Elphie. Don't let me keep you awake."

"You don't sound ok. This is the fourth night you've been like this, Glinda. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's nothing."

"Glinda…we both know it's not nothing. Why don't you come over here and tell me what's going on."

Glinda thought for a moment before carrying her pillow over to Elphaba's bed. Elphaba shifted over to allow Glinda enough room to crawl into bed next to her.

"Comfy?" she asked. When Glinda nodded, she said, "Now, what's wrong? Why have you been waking up every night whimpering like that?"

Glinda's whimpers gradually turned into tears as she spoke. "I've been having these dreams…these nightmares…about getting shot. I know it's over and I'm fine but these dreams are still so scary…"

Elphaba wrapped her good arm around Glinda's shoulder. "I know, I know. Would it help you sleep if you stayed over here?" She thought back to the night she first learned of her mother's death and how Glinda staying next to her as she slept had helped her so much.

Glinda nodded, and let her head fall on her friend's shoulder. It was an odd feeling for Elphaba to be on the giving end of this situation, having been on the receiving end so many times before. As Elphaba held her friend, she realized that this outburst was most likely not a sudden thing. Glinda must have been holding all of this in since all of this began, trying to be strong for Elphaba. The guilty feeling she had felt in the hospital returned.

Once Glinda had fallen asleep, Elphaba stayed awake for a while. She wasn't sure why, but she felt she owed it to Glinda.

A.N. Well, that took awhile. Sorry about the delay. I'll try to be better with the next chapter. Sorry about leaving you guys with the cliffhanger, too, but you knew I wouldn't let anyone get hurt _too_ badly, right?


	24. Flu Season Begins

Strength 

A.N. Thanks for the reviews! And to Penelope, the e-mail address in the review you sent had the part after the symbol cut off. I made a wild guess and sent it to that screenname at yahoo but I'm not sure if that was right. Let me know if I was correct or if some random person got the e-mail I sent you.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters

**Two Weeks Later**-

Fiyero and Elphaba looked around at the bland, off-white walls of the waiting room at the local medical office. Though the atmosphere of the room could hardly be described as "happy", Elphaba was grinning from ear to ear. A week earlier, the cast on her arm had been removed. Today, the cast on her leg was coming off as well. She was finally going to be free.

They had already been waiting quite a while, and the amount of people in the office suggested that they would be waiting for quite some time more. It was mid-December, and right in the middle of cold and flu season. The waiting room was packed full of people sniffling, sneezing, and coughing. Elphaba just hoped that she didn't catch anything from being here all day. She kept herself entertained by watching a pair of children, siblings, most likely, across the room. The older child had a book in his hands, and was reading to his obviously sick little sister.

The scene put an even bigger smile on Elphaba's face. Fiyero, who had been watching the children in an effort to see what was keeping Elphaba entertained in what might have been the most boring waiting room in all of Oz, leaned closer to her and whispered, "How much longer do you think we'll be here?"

Elphaba laughed a little bit. "Honestly, Fiyero, I would expect you to be a little more patient. You knew it was cold and flu season. These places are bound to be busy. Those kids over there were already here when we came in and they haven't complained once."

"Yeah, well, that's because they have something to do. Hey, how about I read to you? You know, one last bit of Fiyero-care before you have to fend for yourself again."

Elphaba sighed and gestured to her bag on the floor. "Fine, Fiyero. If it will keep you from whining about how long we've been here, then go ahead. There's a book in my bag down there that I've been meaning to…"

"Oh, no. I'm not reading anything you brought with you. I don't understand any of that stuff and I'm not reading aloud stuff I don't understand. I do that enough in class." He looked around at the end tables on either end of the row of chairs. "Here we go. This is about my speed" he said selecting one of the children's books from the pile on the far table.

Fiyero opened up the book and began reading before Elphaba could say anything. Elphaba decided it was more fun to pretend like she wasn't listening, and watch people's reactions to a 19 year old collage student reading a children's book aloud to no one. Every so often Fiyero would look up, and Elphaba would make eye contact and feign an intense interest in the story.

He had just finished the book when they called Elphaba's name. As he was carrying her out of the waiting room, an older woman tapped his leg.

"By the way, honey, you read very well" she said.

The procedure of removing the cast was a blur to Elphaba. Fiyero spent much of the time complaining about how she embarrassed him in the waiting room. But soon enough, the cast was off and Elphaba did something she had wanted to do for over six weeks.

She stood up.

She was shaky at first. She wobbled a little bit and Fiyero put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. Her first few steps were just as rocky. Even so, Elphaba insisted on walking home. Although her leg did get stronger as they walked back to Shiz, Fiyero still kept an arm around Elphaba's shoulder. It didn't feel right to him not to be holding on to her somewhere.

Elphaba was actually grateful for Fiyero holding on to her. Although she was overjoyed at being able to walk again, she had grown used to being constantly protected and part of her didn't want to see that stop.

There was a slight chill in the air around them, and the sky had become the pale gray that usually is a warning sign for snow. Still, the two made no effort to speed up their trip.

"So, why didn't Glinda come with us today? I thought she would have wanted to come with you for this." Fiyero asked.

"She said she wasn't feeling well. I'm actually kind of afraid of what I'm going back to."

"Well, I'm sure she'll be fine in a few days. Just make sure not to catch anything yourself. I need both of you to be healthy for our little Lurlinemas celebration."

Elphaba had almost forgotten about Lurlinemas. Of course, it was hard to forget completely with all the decorations everywhere. The three of them had planned a small party for the occasion. The realization dawned on her that she had to get gifts for them. She had to go shopping. And even scarier than that, she had to go alone.

However, when Elphaba got back to her dorm, she realized that shopping was going to be the last thing on her mind. Even before she opened the door she could hear Glinda coughing. She turned and looked at Fiyero.

"I think I'd better go in alone. We don't need both of us being exposed to this."

Fiyero was going to protest, but another coughing fit from Glinda changed his mind. He kissed Elphaba on the cheek, the two exchanged "I love you's" and he headed back to his room.

Elphaba opened the door slowly and peaked her head in before entering. Glinda was sitting at the desk, although whatever she had been attempting to do had been abandoned in the coughing fits.

"Hey, Glinda. How are you feeling?" She knew this was a dumb question; Glinda could be heard coughing halfway down the hallway. Still, Glinda answered her with "Oh, I'm fine. Just a little cough."

"Well, it just so happens that I heard your "little cough" all the way down the hall. I'm surprised no one's had a medical team sent over. It sounds like someone's dying in here."

"Really, Elphie, it's nothing. You and Fiyero…hey, wait a minute. Where is Fiyero? How are you…Oh, Oz! That's right! Your cast came off today. Elphie, I'm so happy for…" Glinda was interrupted by a loud coughing fit.

"Just a little cough, huh? I think I'd better find you some cough medicine." Elphaba retreated to the bathroom and began to search the medicine cabinet. She was about to bring it out when she heard Glinda's voice call her.

"Elphie? Actually, I think I'm going to need the full cold stuff. I've got a headache, and my throat is kind of sore too."

Elphaba laughed at Glinda's sudden change from "I'm fine" to "I'm dying" as she found the right medicine for Glinda. She found a box of pills labled "Full cold relief".

"Here, Glinda. This should treat every cold symptom in Oz" she said as she handed Glinda the pills with a glass of water.

"Thanks, Elphie." Glinda said groggily.

"Why don't you go lie down for awhile?" Before Glinda could respond Elphaba had already guided her friend out of the chair and over to her bed. She helped Glinda to lie down and then positioned herself on the edge of the bed.

"Now try and sleep a bit. Those pills should knock you out for a few hours anyway. If you need anything I'll be over on my bed reading."

Glinda offered only a slight nod in response, so Elphaba went over to her bed and removed from her bag the book that she had attempted to get Fiyero to read to her in the doctor's office. As she opened the book, she let out a slight cough.

"Great" she thought. "Just what I need."

A.N. Well, that took longer than planned. I was actually sick for a few days, which provided inspiration for this chapter.


	25. Help Arrives

Strength 

A.N. Thanks for the reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters

Elphaba spent the rest of the afternoon and evening taking care of Glinda. The medicine helped her to some degree, but it was beginning to become quite clear to Elphaba that Glinda most likely had much more than a simple cold. So she spent the remainder of the day playing nurse, all while ignoring her own growing headache and the cough that kept becoming more and more frequent.

It shouldn't have been a surprise to her, then, when she woke up the next morning feeling just as bad as Glinda. Still, she attempted to get up and get through her day. She couldn't allow herself to be sick. She had things to do. She had to take care of Glinda. She had to get stuff ready for the Lurlinemas party in four days. She had to go shopping for gifts. She had to…

A sudden wave of dizziness sent Elphaba falling back to her bed. As she lay there, she changed her goals for the day. The new goal was to simply make it to Fiyero's room and inform him that both she and Glinda were sick and to ask him to come over, and then to make it back. She stood up again and slowly made her way to the door.

Before she could leave, however, she heard Glinda's voice. "Elphie? Where are you going?"

Elphaba went and knelt by Glinda's bed. "I'm going over to Fiyero's for a little bit. I'll be right back, ok?"

Glinda sat up and studied Elphaba's face for a minute. "Elphie…you look terrible. I don't think you should be going out. You might be getting this too."

"Well I'm no more sick than you are, Glinda. That's why I'm going over to Fiyero's. I'm going to ask him to come over here. And don't try to stop me; you know we need him here. Now go back to sleep. I'll be back soon."

Glinda nodded, and Elphaba once again headed out the door. The walk between her building and Fiyero's building had never seemed longer to her. She could feel herself swaying and had to stop several times to fight off dizziness and coughing fits. She had never been more thankful that Fiyero lived on the ground floor of his building. Stairs just were not going to be an option today.

When Fiyero opened his door, it was all Elphaba could do not to faint dead away into his arms. Instead, she managed a weak smile and said, "Hey, Yero."

"Elphie, you don't look so good. Are you alright?" Fiyero moved closer to her, fearing that she would collapse on him any second.

"Yeah…OK, fine, I'm not alright at all. I guess I caught whatever Glinda had yesterday. Glinda's still sick too, so I was wondering if you could…"

Fiyero had a sense of what Elphaba was going to ask him before she said it. "Of course I'll come and take care of you guys. Now, let's get you back to your room." He put his arm around her shoulder and walked her back to her own building. As they walked, he felt her sway and held her tighter to keep her from falling. It was going to be a long day.

Once they arrived back at Elphaba and Glinda's room, Fiyero didn't waste any time in assuming the "doctor" role. He looked over at Glinda and saw that she was still asleep. After sitting Elphaba down on her bed, Fiyero walked over and put his hand on Glinda's forehead. He then did the same with Elphaba.

"Ok, from what I can tell you are both running pretty high fevers. I'm going to go get a thermometer just to be sure, and when I get back I want you in bed. Not on the bed, not next to the bed, in the bed." He kissed Elphaba on the forehead. "I love you."

As Fiyero went to go rummage through the girls' bathroom for a thermometer, Elphaba used every ounce of energy she had left to get into her nightgown again and to get into bed. She only made it about halfway, though. When Fiyero came out holding the thermometer, he found her slumped over on the side of the bed.

"Man, you're worse off than I thought. Come on, let's get you lying down," he said. He lifted her into the bed and pulled the blankets up around her. "Ok, since Glinda's still asleep I'm going to take your temperature first."

They waited for five minutes for the thermometer to finish. When the liquid inside had finally stopped climbing, Fiyero removed the thermometer from Elphaba's mouth. He stared at it for a moment, and then said "Wow, 102. That's a lot higher than I thought. You should try and sleep now, ok?"

Elphaba nodded, though only slightly. Fiyero reached over and began rubbing her back. He hummed the lullaby that he had hummed to her a few weeks before until he was convinced that she actually was asleep. Then he turned his attention to Glinda.

"Glinda…Glinda, honey, I need to take your temperature, ok?"

Glinda blinked her eyes a few times and then allowed the thermometer to be inserted into her mouth. Five minutes later, Fiyero declared Glinda the winner of the "fever race".

"103. Well, you beat Elphie by a degree. I'm going to go run to the store and get some supplies. You go back to sleep. You both need it."

Glinda closed her eyes and nodded. Fiyero went back over to Elphaba and gently stroked the side of her face. He hated to leave her alone like this, even if it was just for a little while.

Fiyero practically ran the three blocks to the grocery store. Once he reached his destination, he wandered around the store gathering up several varieties of juice, cold and flu medicines, and about ten boxes of tissues. He considered buying some cans of soup, but decided against it seeing as how they would have nowhere to cook it.

The journey back to Shiz was much slower, for the bottles of juice made it difficult for Fiyero to run as fast as he had on the way to the store. As he walked past a jewelry store, a necklace in the window caught his attention. It was obviously meant as a Lurlinemas necklace. The chain was gold, and the stones hanging from it were a bright green. This, he decided, was Elphaba's Lurlinemas gift.

As much as Fiyero would have liked to go into the jewelry store and barter with the owner for the necklace right then and there, he knew that would take too much time. He had other things to worry about right now.

Fiyero went back to Elphaba and Glinda's room and smiled upon seeing the clock. He had completed the trips to and from the store in only 25 minutes. He placed the bags from the store on the desk as quietly as he could and sat down in a chair next to Elphaba's bed. Without realizing it, he began to gently stroke her hair. There was just something about seeing her so sick that made him not want to leave her side.

Glinda coughing on the other side of the room pulled Fiyero out of his trance. He quickly moved the chair to beside Glinda's bed and poured her a glass of juice.

"Here, this should help" he said as he handed her the glass.

Glinda smiled in appreciation, her voice weakened from the constant coughing.

"Did you two sleep while I was out?" Fiyero asked.

Glinda cleared her throat a bit before speaking. "Well, Elphie's been out like a light since you left. But I've been coughing too much to sleep."

Just then they heard Elphaba stirring on the other side of the room. At first is was a gentle murmuring, but it quickly turned into a violent coughing fit. Glinda soon chimed in with a coughing fit of her own, leaving Fiyero stuck in the middle.

"This is going to be a long day," he thought to himself.


	26. Lurlinemas Wrapping

Strength 

A.N. Thanks for the reviews. Sorry this update has taken so long, but things have been crazy for me. Luckily, I'm on spring break this week so I'll have time to update things. Happy spring, everyone.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

Two more days passed. Both Glinda and Elphaba's health showed slight improvement, but they were both still nowhere near what Fiyero considered to be healthy. What worried him the most were the fevers. Glinda's had gone down to 102, but Elphaba's hadn't changed at all in two days.

It was also getting harder and harder to keep Glinda and Elphaba in bed. Now that Elphaba's cast was off, her old spirit was returning, though its return was slowed a little by the sickness. It seemed every time Fiyero turned around Elphaba had some new reason she had to get up. Glinda wasn't much better.

On the third day of the mini epidemic, Fiyero arrived at the girl's room to find Elphaba already up and dressed. Glinda was nowhere to be found, but the sound of running water coming out of the bathroom suggested she was taking a shower.

"Elphie, what are you doing?" Fiyero asked.

"Glinda and I are…" Elphaba was interrupted by a coughing fit. Fiyero folded his arms and patiently waited for the coughing to subside. "We're going out to do our Lurlinemas shopping today." Elphaba continued once the coughing had stopped.

"You are voluntarily going out shopping? That doesn't sound like you, Elphie."

"It's not really. It was Glinda's idea."

Fiyero put his hand to Elphaba's forehead. "Elphie, I don't think this is such a good idea. You still feel very…"

As if on cue, Glinda emerged from the bathroom. "Oh, no you don't! Don't you dare try and talk her out of this. We're both well enough to go out and we need to get our gifts for the party. Lurlinemas is just two days away and tomorrow every store will either be much to crowded or will have nothing left."

Fiyero didn't say anything. He simply crossed the room and put his hand to Glinda's forehead. "Yup, just as I thought. You're still burning up too. I really don't think it's a good idea for either of you to be going out. It's not that big of a deal if we put the Lurlinemas party off until you're both better."

"Yes it is, Fiyero. This is Elphie's first real Lurlinemas and we're going to do it right! Come on, Elphie!" Glinda grabbed Elphaba's wrist and before Fiyero could say anything else the two were out the door.

Glinda led Elphaba down to the closest shopping center. "Ok, so first we're going to split up and look for gifts for each other. Then, we'll meet back here in half an hour to shop for Fiyero and possibly Biq" she said.

"Boq. His name is Boq, Glinda. And what does possibly mean?"

"Well, Elphie, if I'm still feeling up to it after we get a gift for Fiyero then we'll shop for Biq."

"_Boq"_

"Whatever. Ok, see you in a half an hour!"

At first, Elphaba wondered why she had agreed to this. She really wished that she had brought Fiyero with her, even though she knew that that would have made buying him a gift impossible. But being alone in a crowd was starting to feel a bit intimidating. She did her best to remember how she used to ignore the stares and snickering that always seemed to come her way. However, they seemed to sting a little more than they used to.

Meanwhile, Fiyero sat in his own room, for the first time in over a month doing so without staring across the courtyard into Elphaba's window. He was adjusting the wrapping paper on his gift for Elphaba, the necklace he had seen in the window a few days before. As he applied the last piece of tape to the paper, he sat back and looked out his window. It was beginning to get windy, and the sky was once again that faithful shade of grey.

"Those two better hurry up and get home" he thought to himself. He doubted that the slight improvements they had shown over the past few days would hold up to walking outside in a snowstorm.

Just then, something caught his attention in the courtyard below. Two figures were slowly making their way across the snow-covered grass, not bothering to stick to the paved walkway that was the safer, but longer path. The skin color of one and the hair color of the other gave their identities away to Fiyero as soon as he saw them. He leaned back in his chair and relaxed a bit. They were on their way home, and they were at least still able to walk.

About half an hour later, Fiyero heard a knock on his door. He opened it to find Elphaba standing there, shopping bag in hand.

"Hi Elphie. Glad to see you made it back alive from shopping with Glinda. I hear that's no easy task."

"It was actually quite enjoyable, except for this stupid headache."

Fiyero's eyes immediately filled with concern. "Are you ok? Maybe you should sit down for awhile…" He guided her into the room and sat her on his bed. He then noticed the bag in her hand. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to it.

"This is my gift for Glinda. I'm supposed to wrap it over here while she wraps mine in our room. That way they stay a secret." Elphaba explained. "You wouldn't happen to have any wrapping paper or tape, would you? I kind of forgot to bring them."

Fiyero handed Elphaba the roll of paper and the tape, along with a pair of scissors. Elphaba moved herself to the floor and rolled out a much to generous portion of paper, and laid the gift in the center of it. After cutting the paper from the roll, she sat there for a few minutes, as if she was contemplating the best way to go about wrapping the gift.

It occurred to Fiyero that this was possibly her first time wrapping anything. "Uh, Elphie? You do know what you're doing, right? You've wrapped gifts before?"

Elphaba turned her head to Fiyero and said "Well, no. But I'll figure it out. How hard can it be? I'm just covering this box in this paper." She then proceeded to stare at the task in front of her for another five minutes. She would fold one corner up, then decide that wasn't the way to go and put it back down.

After five minutes or watching this, Fiyero finally asked "Need a little help?"

Rather than argue her gift-wrapping ability, Elphaba simply nodded her head. She laughed a little, and said, "I must look pretty stupid to you right now. What kind of person doesn't know how to wrap a gift?"

Fiyero eased himself out of the chair and onto the floor next to Elphaba. He pulled her a little closer to him and held her in his arms. "The kind of person I love", he said. He rocked her back and forth a few times before getting back to the task at hand. "Now, let's wrap this gift. What did you get her anyway? A "Beauty Queen Bath Set"?"

"Look, this was also the first time I've shopped for anyone before. And I didn't have you there to help me with that one. I know Glinda spends a lot of time in the bathroom, so I grabbed something with the word "bath" on it. Just help me wrap it, please?"

Fiyero then went into his lesson on "How to Wrap a Gift." Fortunately, Elphaba was a fast learner so the job only took them about five minutes. Once they had wrapped the gift, Elphaba stayed for a while longer. The two of them sat in Fiyero's chair, Elphaba on Fiyero's lap, watching the snow fall.

A.N. Once again, sorry about the delay with this chapter. Hopefully the next one won't take so long.


	27. Happy Lurlinemas

Strength 

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

Elphaba stayed in Fiyero's room for several hours. It was only when she noticed the sun going down that she decided to go back to her own.

"I should probably get going. Glinda's probably getting worried. Either that or she's passed out from exhaustion on the floor. I think I should be there either way." She stood off of Fiyero's lap and put her gift for Glinda back in the bag.

"Yeah, you're right. Just make sure that you two rest tomorrow, ok?" Fiyero said.

"Sure, Yero. I'll see you soon." Elphaba kissed him and left.

Fiyero stood at his window and watched the tiny green figure race across the snow-covered courtyard. Because of her severe contrast to the snow, he was able to track her all the way back to her building. It wasn't until she was safely inside the building that he took his eyes away from the window.

Elphaba returned to her room to find that the latter of her predictions was about to come true. Glinda was slumped on the floor by her bed, her head resting on the side. She looked up at Elphaba and offered a weak smile.

"Oh, hi Elphie. Did you get your…" Glinda's sentence was interrupted by a coughing fit. "…present wrapped?"

Suddenly, Elphaba saw the reason behind Fiyero's request that they rest. Somehow, the symptoms appeared more severe coming from another person than they had coming from herself. She knelt down next to Glinda and put her hand on her forehead. Feeling that Glinda still had the fever, she then moved her hand to her friend's shoulder. "Yeah, I did. It's right in that bag over there. Why don't you lie down for a bit, ok?" Elphaba helped Glinda stand up and lie down on the bed. Only when Glinda was settled did Elphaba pay any notice to the sudden dizziness that she was feeling. She was only able to make it back to her own bed before passing out herself.

Lurlinemas Eve was rather uneventful. Fiyero spent the day playing the doctor role, throwing in more than a few "I told you so" comments about the girls going shopping the day before. Both girls spent most of the day asleep, drifting in and out of conciousness to the sounds of the Lurlinemas carolers outside their windows.

Against his better judgement, Fiyero decided to spend the night in the girl's room. Most of the staff and other students had gone home for the holiday break, so there was less of a risk of being caught. He also didn't want to walk back to his own room in the dark.

He noticed that Elphaba was off to one side of her bed. He took advantage of this and climbed in next to her, the movement causing her to stir a bit.

"Yero…it's getting late, you should get back to your…"

"Shh, I'm going to stay here tonight. I want to make sure you're both ok. You go back to sleep."

Elphaba nodded and began to drift off again. Fiyero attempted to do the same, but found it much more difficult. At about midnight, he got up to go to the bathroom. However, he never made it there as halfway he was whacked on the back of the head with a pillow. He turned on the closest lamp and turned to see Glinda standing behind him, weapon in hand. She was breathing heavily and he could tell she was scared.

"Fiyero….what are you still doing here? I thought you were a murderer or something." Glinda said, still trying to even out her breathing.

"And you decided that a pillow would stop me?" Fiyero whispered, trying not to wake Elphaba.

"Well…it was the only thing I had next to me at the time. Anyway, have you been here all night?"

"Yeah, I decided it would be easier to just stay here than to go back to my room and then come back for the party tomorrow. Plus I wanted to make sure you two were ok. Which reminds me…" Fiyero put his hand to Glinda's forehead. "Your fever seems to be going down, but you still feel warm. Why don't you go get some rest? Battling would-be murderers with pillows must take a lot out of you."

Glinda gave him a sarcastic smile before going back to her bed. Fiyero, who had forgotten the reason he had gotten up in the first place, turned off the lamp and headed back to Elphaba's bed.

Fiyero didn't end up getting much more sleep. At about seven the next morning, he pulled himself out of bed to get the room ready for the party. They had decided (actually, Fiyero had decided) to open gifts in the girls' room before eating breakfast in the main dining hall with all of the other students who had not been able to go home for the holiday break. Fiyero could sense that although Elphaba had grown very close to himself and Glinda, she still wasn't entirely secure with the rest of Shiz's student population. Therefore he thought it would be best if the three of them kept to themselves for most of the day.

Around seven-thirty, all of the movement and noise finally woke up Glinda. "Fiyero, what are you doing this early?" she half-whined, only to be "Shhh"-ed at by Fiyero. He pointed to Elphaba, still asleep on the other half of the room. "I want everything to be ready when she wakes up. Now come on, get up and help me."

Glinda's desire to give her friend a nice holiday won over her grogginess as she assisted Fiyero in setting out the gifts that had been wrapped two days earlier. Fiyero had taken the liberty of buying Elphaba and Glinda a few extra gifts, to make the scene underneath the girls' tiny tree a little more robust looking. This was his girlfriend's first real Lurlinemas celebration, after all.

By eight, everything was all set up and Fiyero was contemplating the best way to wake up Elphaba. As it turned out, Glinda had the best method. She simply threw herself on top of her friend and bounced up and down, all the while chanting "Wake up! Wake up!"

"Ok, ok, I'm awake! How are you so hyper this early in the morning?" Elphaba said, swatting at Glinda to get her friend off of her. Fiyero sat down next to her on the bed and kissed her forehead. "Happy Lurlinemas, Fabala. How are you feeling?"

Elphaba suddenly remembered the day's significance and a pang of excitement began to well up inside her. "Fine. I think I'm getting better" she answered, trying to hide the excitement.

Fiyero, however, saw right through this. "Well then, come on. Let's go open some presents, shall we?" Fiyero and Glinda started for the tree, but Elphaba looked a little confused.

"Now? I'm not even dressed yet. Shouldn't I…"

"No. You shouldn't do anything. Just get up and open the presents." Glinda said with a twinge of impatience. She was just as excited about this day as Elphaba was.

"Elphie, trust me. It's fine. This is something that every Ozian family does. They wake up, they open presents in their pajamas, then they get ready for the day" said Fiyero.

"Oh, I get it. This is another one of those childhood rites of passage that I never experienced, right? Right up there with the birthday party? Are we going to re-do every part of my childhood that was not up to your standards of excellence?"

"Now you're getting the plan! Come on, let's open some presents, shall we?"

Fiyero quickly took the one desk chair, and Glinda knelt down on the floor. Elphaba quickly did the same, glad to have an example to follow.

"Ok, let's see what we have here…" Fiyero immediately began to distribute the various gifts. Glinda quickly opened each one and, after a hurried "thank you" put it in a pile next to her. Elphaba soon followed suit.

As Elphaba opened one of her gifts, she noticed Fiyero had been staring at her for awhile.

"What, am I doing something wrong?"

"No…it's just…I haven't seen you this happy in a long time. Look at yourself. You're relaxed, you're smiling, you're laughing…"

Elphaba then realized that he was right. This was the happiest she had been in a long, long time. She wasn't scared, she wasn't worried, there was no concern in the back of her mind. Just pure and simple happiness. She took a moment to savor the emotion.

"You know, I think things are finally starting to get back to normal around here." Fiyero said.

Elphaba thought for a moment. Normal. She hadn't had a normal day in so long that she had started to forget what one was like. What had "normal" been for her before her mother's death? Getting stared at everywhere she went? Having people avoid her because of her skin? How could she ever have accepted that as normal?

"No, things aren't going back to normal." Elphaba said. "They're getting a whole lot better."

A.N. OK, I know at the end of the last chapter I said "Hope this one won't take so long" and then it took over a month. I was in my school musical and the rehearsal schedule got pretty intense over the last few weeks. We just had our performance weekend, though, so now I'm going to have a lot more free time. This is probably the last real chapter of this story; there will be an epilogue after this chapter and then I think it's time to end this one. I can't drag this out forever. Thank you for indulging me over the past month or so; I promise I won't keep you waiting again.


	28. EpilougeGraduation

Strength 

A.N. Well, here it is, folks. The last installment. As far as a sequel goes…yeah, I might write one eventually. I'm defiantly going to be doing some more in the Wicked area, though.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

_Two and a Half Years Later_

"And as our students leave our fine institution, the faculty here at Shiz wish them the best in whatever field they choose. And if we here at Shiz have had some tiny part in their decisions, then we have accomplished our goal…"

Elphaba, Glinda, and Fiyero sat underneath the burning early summer sun, all dressed in identical black robes. Although Elphaba was quite used to this type of attire, both Glinda and Fiyero were constantly using the paper programs that had been handed out to all attending the Shiz University graduation ceremony as fans. Elphaba, who was sitting in the middle of the two of them, didn't really have to. Not only did her preference for black clothing prepare her for these types of situations, but the breezes from both Glinda and Fiyero's makeshift fans kept her more than comfortable.

As Madame Morrible droned on and on about how proud she was of the students and how she wished them the best in the future and how the past three years had been marked with challenges that all the students had been able to meet, typical graduation speech fare, Elphaba took to gazing around at the stands filled with proud families and friends of the graduates, and any younger students who hadn't been able to make it home yet and needed something to do. She knew that she had nobody up there watching her. She had some occasional contact with Nessa over the past two years, but nothing more than a reassurance that the other was still alive. Nessa would also describe, in great detail, the affairs of Munchkinland, and Elphaba would write back with advice on how to best handle the situation. Elphaba could sense that Nessa was beginning to have second thoughts about taking the governor's job at such a young age, but wasn't ready to admit it yet.

Elphaba felt a sudden pang of sadness for her sister. Although Nessa was a year younger, the two were enrolled in the same class. This would have been Nessa's graduation day as well, had she been able to stay at Shiz. "Funny, she was the only reason I was here and she didn't end up graduating" she thought to herself. Although Elphaba knew that it wasn't her fault that her sister dropped out, it still made her sad to think about how Nessa should have been there with her.

She went back to gazing into the stands. Apparently, it was a pastime of many a bored graduate, because many parents were waving from the stands to their children. She also saw what must have been the "bored siblings" club, a group of younger children congregated under the bleachers playing a game of some sort. She then glanced up at the stage again, to make sure Madame Morrible was still talking. Sure enough, the commencement speech (this was only the commencement speech? It was long enough to be the entire ceremony) was still going on.

As soon as Elphaba broke her distraction of looking at the stands, she felt herself get very, very tired. Well, not really tired. None of her felt tired except for her eyes and her neck. Gently, she rested her head on Fiyero's shoulder. She didn't close her eyes or attempt to sleep. She just rested there.

Fiyero, who had been amusing himself by seeing how many different origami formations he could turn his program into and still get it back to it's original shape, looked up at the sudden touch on his shoulder. He smiled at Elphaba, who in turn smiled back at him. While so many other couples in Shiz's graduating class were spending this day crying over how they would never see each other again, Fiyero and Elphaba could not stop smiling. They knew that they would see each other every day after graduating. After all they had been through, nothing was going to keep them apart.

"And with that being said, I present to you the graduating class of Shiz University!" Madame Morrible's speech was finally done. The students filed up onstage, accepted diplomas for whatever field they had studied or pretended to study, smiled, waved, and walked into the crowd of cheering, crying, and hugging graduates and parents. The actual graduation ceremony had taken only twenty-five minutes. Madame Morrible's speech had taken close to an hour.

After the ceremony was over, graduates were instructed to finish moving out of their dorms. Fiyero's room was pretty much done-the three of them had worked on packing it up the day and night before. Now they turned their attention to Glinda and Elphaba's room. While Fiyero went off in search of more cardboard boxes, Glinda and Elphaba sat down on their beds, now stripped of any linens, and looked around at the almost empty room.

"Now, see? Living with the green girl wasn't so bad, now was it?" Elphaba said sarcastically. She noticed Glinda wiping her eyes with her hands, and quickly moved over to Glinda's bed.

"Oh, Glinda don't cry. We're just leaving the room behind, not each other. Everything is going to be ok."

"I know…it's just…well, Elphie, this school was our lives! Everything happened in here. We met here, we became friends here, we met Fiyero and Boq here…"

"Hey, you actually got his name right!" Elphaba's voice filled with genuine excitement. "Well, better late than never I guess. Anyway, I know what you mean, Glinda. It's kind of like….I know I had 18 years of a life before I came here, but the past 3 have been more important to me than the 18 before them combined. Everything that I have, I got here. But you know what? I'm taking everything I have with me, too. And so are you. Look…" Elphaba reached over and grabbed a picture frame off the nightstand. The photo inside showed a confident young Galinda standing with her parents at a train station the day she left for Shiz. Dressed in a cream suit with more luggage than all the other students combined, she was the poster child for wealthy families of the Upper Uplands. "This is you just 3 years ago. When I first met you, you were spoiled, snobby, conceited, you had never done anything for yourself…"

"Is this going somewhere?" Glinda didn't really see the point of her friend's so called "pep talk".

"Yes. The point is, you're not any of that now. Glinda, you sat up with me all night when I didn't even ask. You went with me on three separate trips in one year. You got shot on one of them and never even gave it a second thought. I could never have pictured this girl" Elphaba said, motioning to the photo, "doing any of that. But you did. Glinda, I never would have made it through the past three years without you. So, yeah, you're leaving behind a room and a building and some teachers you never want to see again, but you're taking two very good friends with you."

"Two best friends." Glinda said, her voice starting to steady out. Just then Fiyero came back with the boxes, and the three set to work on packing the girl's room. It took them a grand total of two hours to get the room packed and emptied into the cab that would take them into the next chapter of their lives. Once the room was emptied, the three of them stood in the empty room. Fiyero had his arm around Elphaba's shoulder. Elphaba suddenly understood the reason for Glinda's crying earlier. It was hard to say goodybye. Not that saying goodbye was new to her.

Fiyero and Glinda started down to the cab. Elphaba remained in the room for just another minute, to glance around and check for any forgotten items that might have been under beds or under the desk. She looked out the window and felt something that she had not felt in quite a long time, at least not completely. Sure, she had felt brushes of it here or there. She had had moments of it. Even whole days of it. But she hadn't felt it this completely in a very, very long time.

She felt strong.

A.N. Ok, that's it! I would like to thank all the people that supported this story. 79 reviews at this time…that's quite a lot. Like I said, I will have more Wicked fics in the future. And, with the glory that is summer coming up, you nice people probably won't have to wait a month or more for updates on those like you did on this story.


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